


Of Coffee and Tea

by pseudonymical



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Daycare, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Child Eren Yeager, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, I don't know, M/M, Mild Language
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-14
Updated: 2015-07-21
Packaged: 2018-03-12 08:59:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 26,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3350882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pseudonymical/pseuds/pseudonymical
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>ModernAU (CollegeAU & DaycareAU)</p><p>Levi was a college senior planning on completing his last year in peace. This plan, however, was completely ruined when his coffee machine broke down, forcing him to get a cup of coffee from the local cafe and bumping into her.</p><p>Now an adult, Levi found himself working in a daycare center, surrounded by kids and adults who act like kids. Life had never been as monotonous as this, until he enrolled.</p><p>Two seemingly unrelated stories weaved together as one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Present: Here We Go Again

**Author's Note:**

> First time writing a Shingeki no Kyojin fanfiction. Don't kill me.
> 
> Odd chapters: Present (well, sort of present)  
> Even chapters: Past
> 
> Note: There will be no Adult!Levi and Kindergarten!Eren romance, because... no.

The nightmares were always the same.

Every time, they’d start off with the continuous screeching of car tires on asphalt – all of them of the same ear-splitting pitch, in the same ground-rattling volume. Following it was the sudden appearance of two glowing specks, quickly expanding, emitting yellow light so intense in the dark that they looked like suns adorning a starless night sky.

The orbs continued to burn brightly for a long period of time, with the tires still crying in protest in the background, and the scene was starting to blend together – brilliant light seamlessly fading away to the engulfing darkness – becoming rather calming and sedative…

And then the silhouette appeared.

It stood in between the glaring lights, unmoving like a terrified child, and immediately, the screeching halted, a shrill scream of pain consecutively taking its place. The two golden lights bled crimson, and the silhouette crumbled into a million jagged pieces, all of a vibrant shade of red. The cry then intensified, sounding progressively less like an injured girl and more like the strangled cries of a newborn.  


And every time, this was when Levi would jolt up in bed, sweat beading on his creased forehead, his heart thundering wildly in his chest. His arm would shoot out, grappling thin air, searching for warmth by his bedside. But by the end of the whole spasm, his hands would find nothing but solid coldness, and the realization would come too late, leaving him defeated but awake.

Today wasn’t an exception.

After the all the shouting and whimpering, after all the kicking and convulsing, Levi turned to look at the digital clock on his bedside table, its glowing digits reading 5:14. He wasn’t supposed to wake up until another hour or so, but going back to sleep was definitely out of the question, given the abominable state his clothes and bed were. And so, he rubbed his face unceremoniously, combing away the black hair that was plastered on his face with sweat, and, after a quick side glance to the empty space to his left, stood up and went to kill time before preparing for work.

 

* * *

 

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the first day of the work week is nothing if not torture. The agony of early mornings, of horrible coffee, of wearing uniforms and formal wear after a day of t-shirts and sweatpants, should be reason enough to hate Mondays.

In Levi’s case, however, it was the sound of laughter, so shrill and deafening and _happy_ , that made him dread going to work. He was fine with early mornings and horrible coffee; it wasn’t as though he needed any help in waking up and staying awake, anyway. Oh, he could do that just fine. Listening to overactive balls of packed energy guffaw and cry, however, he needed major help with.

And the striped white-and-blue apron required for work only managed to worsen everything.

In all honesty, Levi wasn’t sure why he hadn’t resigned when he’d gotten the chance to and switched back to his old job in the office. He knew as a matter of fact that he would be accepted almost immediately: his boss had made that point very clear to him in 22 separate emails. Not only was his pay much higher in the office, he also had had the freedom of locking himself inside his cubicle all day, every day, enveloping himself in the peace and quiet of his small, little island. Surely, that was better than spending most of his day surrounded by mindless idiots, wasn’t it?

But alas, he hadn’t resigned and had automatically been signed up for another 1-year contract to work in the hell hole he was currently on his way to.

Great, he’d thought when he found out about the contract. Another year of being surrounded by morons – what more could he have possibly asked for?

And of course, just as he was thinking this, the building in which he worked appeared behind the thick row of trees, shining in all its glory under the glaring July sun, its white walls glowing yellow. For a small, two-storey building with a moderate playground, it sure did an amazing job in attracting attention to itself.

Levi sighed as he dragged himself past the gates, on which a plaque read, “St. Maria Daycare Centre”. Inside the building, he took a deep breath in preparation for an excruciating round of small talk as he entered the staff room and clocked himself in. Fortunately, he was early and only one person was there in the room when he walked in. Unfortunately, that particular person’s ability to retain saliva while talking was equivalent to that of the other four people working in the day care, and hence talked way more than was deemed necessary by society.

Or by Levi, at least.

“Good morning, Levi! How are you today?” the particularly exuberant brunette greeted him from where she was sitting on the couch, beaming a million-watt smile. “Didn’t get into too much trouble this weekend, did you?”

“Hanji,” Levi said simply, pressing his thumb on the glass scanner. When he heard the device beep and saw that the red light under his thumb had become green, he wiped his thumb on his pants, grimacing at the thought that he’d touched an object which housed the germs of all the 5 people who worked there.

“The weather sure is nice today, isn’t it? The sun’s so bright! It’s been raining nonstop the past two days; the change in weather sure is welcomed!” Hanji marveled, standing up and stretching out her arms as she walked towards the coffee maker. She poured herself a cup of freshly brewed coffee and offered Levi one, only to be rejected by him with a simple, “No.”

“Suit yourself.” Hanji then promptly took a sip from her cup and made a show in exhaling contently. Levi rolled his eyes.

Having nothing else to do in the staff room – and wanting to be as far away as possible from the brunette – he took a clean apron from its rack, put it on, and exited the staff room just as Hanji took in a deep breath as though in preparation to speak. Levi quickly made his way to the playing room.

It was 7AM, half an hour before the first batch of kids was to arrive. Levi rolled up the sleeves of his white dress shirt and quickly went to take the box of chew toys and cooking play sets to be washed in the daycare’s equivalent of the laundry room.

It wasn’t his duty to wash toys that day, but he’d made it an unspoken agreement that he was to take care of washing every morning because he would rather scrub dried saliva off toys than to greet the bodies that secreted them.

Well, that, and the fact that he didn’t think his colleagues would do an adequate job in cleaning the things that would later end up inside a toddler’s mouth.

As he was rinsing a plastic tea set, he let his mind wander around the place. As always, he ended up reciting his daily routine in the daycare centre in chronological order.

He’d clock in to work and listen to Hanji prattle about things that utterly didn’t matter – check.

He’d clean toys and whatnots – check… well, he was doing that right now.

He’d be passive-aggressively manipulated into playing with children because Hanji would always have something else to do and the others would be nowhere to be found. He’d spend the next few hours leading to nap time supervising the children from a corner of the room (while reading, usually) and occasionally help out a group of toddlers with a toy they couldn’t open or a word they couldn’t read.

He’d clean the play room during nap time, before retreating back to the corner and spending the next couple of hours leading to pick up time supervising the children from afar (and reading), again.

He’d make sure that all the kids were picked up during pick up time and that none was left in the building, before finally going home after a long and tedious day.

Levi sighed.

By 8AM, the toys were practically reflecting every beam of light casted down on them. Satisfied with his work, he returned them to the playing room, doing his best to do so inconspicuously. The last thing he wanted was to attract the attention of the children who had arrived and were playing with large building blocks with Hanji in the middle of the room.

Well, he tried.

Not a second after he’d placed the box of toys in the corner of the room, however, Hanji called him. “Hey, Levi! Do you mind switching with me? I need to run a super quick errand for Erwin. Oluo and Gunther are both running late, and Erd is outside greeting the kids.”

Levi nodded even though it was the last thing he wanted to do, earning him another blinding smile and an extremely loud proclamation of gratitude. He grunted in response to this and sat down on the spot Hanji vacated.

“So, what are you brats making?” he asked, trying to feign interest but failing. His face maintained its frown and his eyes remained cold. Oh well, it wasn’t as if he was trying very hard.

“We-we are building a house!” stuttered a rather small boy whose blond hair looked more yellow than citrine. Levi knew that he’d seen the boy before, playing with a girl who seemed to be his only friend, but he hadn’t cared enough to ask him for his name.

Levi looked at the wooden blocks strewn all over the carpeted floor before him. They looked more like ancient ruins than the foundation of a house, really. He tried looking at it from a different angle, but rather than a house, it looked more like the tourist-worthy ruins of Babylon to him. He sighed inwardly and wondered what Hanji had been teaching them.

“It looks horrible. That’s not a house, it’s a ruin,” Levi spat out, crossing his legs. His comment brought along varying responses from the children around him, all of which went unnoticed to the raven. Turning towards the blond boy, he asked, “What’s your name, kid?” The other five children turned to stare at the boy addressed.

“A-A-Armin, sensei!” the boy – Armin – answered with a little more force than necessary.

“Okay, Armin and company. Here’s what we’re going to do about this mess, okay? I want you to dissemble everything. Then we’ll need a strong foundation so that – no, no, don’t do that. Here, let me…”

Levi completely took charge of the situation. He demolished the horrible excuse of a building and started commanding the children to put blocks in appropriate places. Even though they didn’t understand much of what Levi was saying, they complied anyway, seeing how much more experienced he was compared to rest them.

However, the previous laughter and chatter of the children slowly died down, awkward silences and glances at each other taking their place. Bored out of their wits, a few of the more energetic ones stood up and left the circle, opting to play with the other toys scattered around the room.

Levi couldn’t help but notice this change, but before he could do anything to engage them back into building the almost-finished house, he heard someone whistle behind him, clearly impressed of the building block mansion he was constructing.

“Scouting for future architects, are we now?”

Levi dropped the last block, which was promptly snatched by a tiny arm, and whirled around. To say that the grin on Hanji’s face annoyed him terribly would be a massive understatement of the grossest proportions.

“Hanji-sensei!” Joy and life returned to the children’s faces as they sprang up and gathered around the brunette like ants to sugar. The kids who had left to play with other toys quickly approached her as well, determined to be a part of the group. “Hanji-sensei! Let’s play hide and seek outside!” they shouted in unison.

Hanji laughed. “Okay, grasshoppers. We’ll play hide and seek,” replied the brunette, fixing her glasses. She casted a rueful smile at Levi, who was still seated in front of the forgotten block house, no longer surrounded by children, before heading out to play hide and seek with the throng of laughing kids. Levi was left alone in the room.

“Tch,” he muttered under his breath, staring at the block house before him. His expression was unreadable. _Stupid_ , he thought. _Stupid kids_.

Suddenly, Levi heard tumultuous footsteps echoing from the hallway. He was just about to stand up and leave the room, not wanting to have to play with the kids again, when something collided against his back with enough force to send both of them crashing into the block mansion.

Levi heard someone flinch. Opening his eyes, he found that he was laying face first on the floor, several wooden blocks painfully wedged in between his abdomen and the carpet. On his back was an unfamiliar weight, moving and squirming.

“Be careful when you’re running!” someone shouted behind him, and before he could comprehend what was happening, the weight on top of him sprang up, painfully jumping on his spine as though it was a launching pad. Soon, he found himself looking straight into two ridiculously large and impossibly green orbs belonging to the kid standing in front of his face.

“Eren,” said a different voice, this one calm and soft and definitely that of a female. “That’s not very nice of you to do.”

Levi quickly stood up and turned around, brushing himself off as he did, only to find himself facing Oluo, who – judging from the dark shadows under his eyes and his crooked tie – probably had one too many shots the night before, and a short elderly woman beside him. She smiled apologetically at Levi, deepening the wrinkles above her cheeks.

“I’m so sorry. He’s always running around like that,” she said, walking towards the child beside Levi. She waved the child over, and he – Eren, Levi presumed – sprinted towards her. Wrapping his arms around her legs, he buried his face in the fabric of the woman’s pants, leaving only a messy mop of brown hair visible to Levi. Eren then turned his face and curiously looked at the raven, who tried his best not to be bothered by the lad’s scrutiny. To Eren, the woman chided, “Eren, what should you say to the young man?”

The child was quiet for a long period of time, opting instead to stare intensely at Levi, and Levi couldn’t help but stare back, feeling as if the kid was ravenously storing away all details of his physical appearance with those glistening emeralds he called eyes. As time ticked on and the silence became ever so heavy, Levi was just about to wave it all away and say that it was okay when Eren finally spoke up, his voice muffled against the woman’s trousers. Even so, Levi could hear him perfectly well.

“I’m sorry, Heichou.”

The woman, who Levi could only assume was Eren’s grandmother, chuckled and rubbed Eren’s head affectionately. If she’d found the way her grandson addressed Levi odd – which Levi did – she did nothing to show for it. If anything, her smile only widened.

“Be careful next time, okay?” she said, receiving a nod in reply. “Now, why don’t you go find some toys to play with while I finish up your paperwork? I’ll pick you up at 6. Is that okay with you, Eren?”

Finally breaking off eye contact with Levi, Eren let go of his grandmother’s legs and beamed, nodding feverishly. Not a second later, he was running towards the box of toys, Oluo following him. Levi blinked to get himself out of his daze.

“I’m so sorry,” the woman said again to Levi. “That must’ve hurt.”

Levi pressed his lips together, the closest thing to a friendly smile he could muster then. As cold and distant as he was, he wasn’t impolite as to grimace at an old woman. He shook his head slightly. “It’s fine. It was an accident,” he said in the most cordial voice he could, which wasn’t saying much because… well, because.

“It’s just that,” the woman continued, smiling and interweaving her fingers together, making a crochet out of appendages, “he’s had it rough these past few years…”

 _Well_ , Levi thought. _That makes the both of us then._

“I just don’t have the heart to scold him whenever he becomes too active… But then, I suppose I don’t have much of anything these days.” The woman laughed heartily at herself.

“It’s fine. I understand completely,” Levi said.

The last few years hadn’t been easy on Levi as well. And while what Levi went through might or might not be worse than what Eren went through, it was unfair to just shrug it off as though it was nothing. Levi supposed that, if he wanted to, he’d be able to empathize with Eren. Of course, ‘if’ was the operative word in that sentence.

Although he’d left his thoughts unspoken, the woman smiled knowingly at him, her eyes, covered by a thin layer of white, gleaming as they searched his face.

“I’m Julia Jaeger, Eren’s grandmother.” The woman –Julia – finally said after a moment of silence, holding out her hand.

“Levi,” Levi replied, shaking her hand.

“Julia, should we go to the office now?” Oluo had magically reappeared by their side, his puckered face beaded with sweat.

Levi turned to look at Eren, who’d found a worn rag doll and was playing with it in the corner of the room, before returning his gaze to Julia.

“Well, I better fill out those forms now. Please take good care of Eren for me, Levi.” She bowed slightly, and Levi did the same. She then turned around and followed Oluo out of the hall.

After the two had turned the corner and were no longer in sight, Levi turned around, ready to retreat to his usual corner when his legs unconsciously carried him towards the lone child in the room. He blinked, once, before realizing where he was, towering over the brunet like a bully in a playground.

Eren, sensing the shadow cast on him, looked up, his eyes shining and very alive.

Then he cracked a smile.

“Do you want to play with me?” he asked, lifting the rag doll as high as he could. Seeing his smile, Levi was tempted to squat down next to him and pick up another doll to play with him. But images after images flashed through his mind like lightning during a thunderstorm, and he shook his head imperceptibly and promptly walked away from the child.

From where he was sitting, he could see that Eren continued to play alone, mumbling sound effects as he moved the doll around. After a while, the other children returned to the room, Hanji tailing them, and Eren was quickly surrounded by kids his age, all asking him his name and whether he’d like to play with them. When he said yes and started running around with them - albeit rather awkwardly - Levi pried his eyes away from the scene and went to grab a book from the shelf beside him.

Levi sighed. _Here we go again_ , he thought as he opened the book.


	2. Past: Of Coffee and Tea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Levi gets bullied by an inanimate object [read: his coffee maker] and gets flustered over his own nakedness (sort of).

If there ever was something he could blame for everything that happened to him after that one fateful day, it would be his own headstrong impatience.

Well, that, and his awful excuse of a coffee maker.

 

* * *

 

 

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

Standing in the middle of his room wrapped in three layers of blankets, Levi could only glare at the chunk of metal sitting adamantly on his study table, refusing to start. Teeth chattering from the winter cold – apparently he’d forgotten to set his heater the night before – he wondered what horrible thing he must’ve had done in his past life to deserve this.

“Come on,” he murmured under his breath as he punched the _on_ button over and over again, hoping that his coffee maker would fix itself and make him the cup of coffee he desperately needed.

But alas, it didn’t. The usually cheerful gurgling and promising rumbling of the machine were gone, in its place a deafening silence, an uproarious muteness, a thunderous quiet that seemed to be mocking Levi of his misfortune. “Off to the coffee shop you go!” they seemed to be saying, laughing silently as they did.

Levi sighed, defeated, before stripping off and putting on a grey t-shirt, a pair of jeans and the leather jacket he’d only bought at the insistence of the closest person to a friend he had, Farlan. Stepping out of his room and getting slapped by the cold winter front, he decided to wrap a scarf – “White, because aren’t you _just_ the purest little thing,” Farlan had said when he’d given it to Levi as an early birthday present a week ago – around his neck before making his way to the nearest coffee shop from his dorm.

And so, 10 minutes later, he found himself sandwiched uncomfortably between a fat geezer who found joy in sucking in his mucus loudly and proudly in public, and a redhead female who, Levi thought, needed desperate help with her indecision.

“Err,” the redhead muttered, squinting at the menu hanging behind the barista’s head. “Can I have a peppermint mocha – wait, no. Forget that. Um…”

For fuck’s sake, Levi thought, exhaling through his nose. Make up your goddamned mind.

The redhead shifted on her feet, her Shingshina University keychain dangling from her bag. “Uh, let’s see… I’ll get a… Uhm…” Her voice trailed off at the end of the sentence, and she shifted some more. Levi growled under his breath as the man standing behind him snorted some more.

“Ah, okay, um… I’ll get a latte... But…” She scratched her head. The barista behind the counter merely sighed and looked at her watch.

See, _this_ was precisely why Levi had saved up all his money from his part time job and ate nothing but ramen noodles for a whole 3 months to buy himself an adequate coffee machine. He hated people, hated noise, hated indecision, but most of all he hated people who were noisy in the midst of the indecision. And if you’d told him that one day, his beloved coffee machine would decide not to give him his daily dose of caffeine, forcing him to go to a _café_ and stand behind a girl who belonged to that very last category, he’d probably hang himself just to make sure that never happened to him.

“I… I’ll get the… Er… Earl Grey Latte…? Wait…”

Levi clenched and unclenched his fists. He did _not_ need this – especially not before his morning dose of caffeine.

“Just fucking order already,” he grumbled, not caring that the man behind him immediately stopped mid-snort or that the barista – and the people near enough to hear his voice – had looked surprised, disturbed or, in some cases, deeply offended at his choice of words.

Surprised and terrified of the glowering man, the girl could only stammer helplessly, “I – I – I’ll get the – the – err…”

Levi let out a frustrated growl. “She’ll have an Earl Grey Latte, with a pump of decisiveness, if you have those stocked,” Levi blurted out.

The girl’s eyes darted frantically from the barista, who had started inputting the order into the computer in front of her, and Levi, who was fixing his scarf because it was so goddamned hot and stifling being in between two idiots. Looking back at the barista, she said, “Oh yeah, err, I’ll have that.”

“That’ll be three sixty-five,” the barista breathed, obviously bored out of his wits.

The girl squirmed in her spot and opened her purse, digging for her wallet. “Sorry, it’s somewhere here…” she said after a whole minute of searching.

You’ve got to be kidding me, Levi thought, breathing in deeply to hold himself back from kicking the counter. You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

Levi took out his wallet and fished out a ten-dollar bill, smacking it on the counter. “One Caffè Americano and one Earl Grey Latte, to go. Quickly, if you can.” He nodded at the increasing number of people in the line.

The barista took the bill and handed him his change. The girl in front of him barely had the time to say anything before Levi brushed past her and headed towards the waiting counter. She quickly followed behind him.

“Err, sorry, but thank you,” she muttered, her fingers playing with the hem of her beige sweater. “For the drink, that is.”

An almost imperceptible nod was all she received in reply.

“I-I mean, I’ll pay you back, of course.” She opened her purse to rummage for her wallet some more.

“You don’t have to.” Levi sighed internally. There goes a good portion of his dinner today, all for the sake of ending a one-sided conversation.

“No, I insist. It’s just… I can’t seem to find my wallet…” The redhead rummaged some more. Levi decided not to respond this time.

When his orders were called out and two paper cups were set on the counter, he took his cup and promptly walked out of the shop.

At least, that was what he was about to do, until he felt a tug at his jacket and whirled around, crashing right into a certain redhead. It wasn’t until he felt steam rise up to his face, stinging his freezing cheeks, that he realized that, in whirling around and crashing into her, her drink had spilled all over his clothing. His knit scarf, however, had taken the most damage.

The aura of darkness and death seeping out of Levi was enough to silence the whole coffee shop.

“I,” the redhead breathed, “am so sorry.”

Levi took a deep breath, a sickening scent of god-knows-what attacking his senses, fists clenching so hard that his knuckles turned white, before unraveling his scarf – now stained a light brown – and walking out of the shop without uttering a single word.

He had only made it several metres away from shop when he heard an unfortunately familiar voice shouting, asking him to stop.

All he wanted was to retreat to his room and finish his coffee before working on the paper he had to submit in a few weeks. Apparently, even _that_ was too much to ask.

Really, what exactly did he do in his past life to deserve such torment in his current one?

He quickened his pace, wishing that, for _once_ , the girl would pick up the sign and understand that he wanted nothing to do with her. He didn’t care that his scarf got soiled or that he’d be eating even more ramen noodles tonight. He’d be glad to burn the unsightly excuse of a scarf and survive off instant noodles for the rest of his life if it meant that he’d finally have the peace he so wanted.

But of course, that didn’t happen, because that’d be asking for too much. His quickening of his pace only caused the redhead to start running, and not a minute later she was standing in front of him, leaning forward with hands on her knees, her breath coming out in quick successions of misty clouds.

“Wait, stop, hold on,” she panted, holding up a hand.

“What do you want?” Levi asked in monotone, wishing that the asphalt beneath his feet would open up into a chasm and transport him back to the comfort of his room.

“I wanted to pay you back and wash that for you.” She pointed at Levi’s scarf.

“No, thank you.” Levi side-stepped and was, once again, just about to walk away when his hand was grabbed by icy cold fingers.

“I’m just going to chase you if you walk away again, so please do just do us both a favour and accept my offer.”

Levi sighed. There was no point in arguing with such a headstrong person. He turned around, careful to keep whatever was left of his coffee from spilling on the redhead, and handed his scarf over.

“Just the scarf,” Levi said. “Send it over to Shiganshina University, B Dorm, room 205 when you’re done.”

The girl straightened and took the scarf, before sticking in her hand into her front pocket. “Here’s the money you –”

“Use it for a dry clean or something. I was planning to wash it soon, anyway.” He wasn’t sure whether or not that was a lie.

“But it was perfectly clean before,” the redhead reasoned. “Why would you clean something that’s already clean?”

Levi turned around, already making his way towards the dorm.

“Yeah, well, it wasn’t up to my standard of cleanliness.”

 

* * *

 

The knocks came at precisely 8PM on a Thursday night.

Levi had only shuffled out of his bathroom after a soothing hot shower, clad in nothing but a towel around his waist and beads of water clinging stubbornly on his skin and hair, when he heard the knocks. He ignored them, thinking that whoever was on the other side of the door could wait until the next morning to do whatever it was he or she had set out to do then.

He sat down on the chair by his study table, exhaling in content as blasts of warm air tickled his wet skin. He’d set his heater in such a way that, if someone were to walk into his room right then, they’d probably mistake the season for summer.

It wasn’t as if Levi hated winter in particular – he prided himself in having no predilections whatsoever when it came to seasons or time of the year. And it wasn’t as if Levi hated the cold, either; he didn’t mind the biting wind or the dry air.

It was just that, while the word ‘lazy’ was the last thing one would use to describe Levi, he didn’t particularly _like_ going through the hassle of wearing multiple layers of clothing just to adequately conserve body heat. It restricted his movements, making him feel as though he was strapped in a straightjacket.

Because if there was ever a word one could use to describe Levi, it’d definitely be ‘free’.

Levi didn’t notice that he’d been slowly inching towards slumber until the feverish knocks came once again. Grunting, Levi stood up and made his way towards the door, ready to glare his visitor away.

Being a male student living in a male dormitory, Levi had expected his visitor to be one in possession of the X-Y chromosomes. That being said, to say that he was surprised to see a girl standing in front of his door would be the understatement of the century.

“What are you doing here?” he asked the all-too-familiar redhead, who looked completely aghast.

“Um...” The redhead fidgeted, eyes darting everywhere, looking at everything but Levi. “I… I’m returning your… I’m returning your scarf!” She held out a brown paper bag and clenched her eyes shut, a light shade of pink colouring her cheeks.

Levi cocked a brow at her reaction, before taking the paper bag and setting it down on the floor beside the door.

“You know, you could’ve just left it in my mailbox down in the lobby.”

“I didn’t know you had one,” the girl whimpered, biting her lower lip. Her eyes were still shut tight. “I’m new here.”

Levi sighed. “I know I’m not a pretty sight, but you don’t have to close your eyes so tightly. I’m not Medusa,” he deadpanned.

Her eyes shot open then, cheeks burning even more brightly. “Ah, sorry, I didn’t mean to – I mean, it’s just that, you know, you’re…” She lifted a finger to point at his lower half.

It was then that Levi remembered he was only wearing a towel around his waist and nothing else.

There was a brief moment of silence between the two.

“Well,” he started, hoping to salvage some of his dignity before it completely ran down the drain, but was immediately cut short by the sound of uproarious laughter. “What? What’s so funny?”

The redhead brought up a hand to stifle her laughs, but ultimately failing when she only laughed even harder after looking at Levi’s disgruntled look. “You were blushing! I didn’t think you were the type to blush, but you totally did!” She laughed some more. “And here I thought you were some scary old senior.”

“No, I wasn’t,” Levi argued, but even he could feel the heat on his cheeks. “And I _am_ a scary old senior.”

“Yes, of course you are. You’re a _blushing_ scary old senior.”

“I wasn’t _blushing_.” Levi really wished the floor beneath him would suck him up right then. Why was he even talking back? He could just slam the door in her face right there and then and end the conversation in an instant. But, of course, he didn’t, because ending it that way would mean that he lost, and he was _not_ going to lose to some indecisive little redhead brat. “Why would I be blushing? If anyone blushed, it’d be you,” he said.

It was the redhead’s turn to be defensive. “I did _not_ ,” she exclaimed, although she totally did. “Even if I was, it would be your fault! Who greets their visitors wearing only a towel?”

“Males do,” Levi argued, although he wasn’t sure whether or not that was true. He rarely went over to other people’s rooms and people rarely went over to his. Well, aside from Farlan, that is. “And,” he continued, “in case you haven’t realized, this is a _male_ dormitory, a place where _male students_ live.”

“You still blushed.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake.

“Are we done here?” he asked in hopes of ending the horrible excuse of a conversation, regardless of whoever won.

“Oh! Wait!”

What now, he thought.

The girl bent down to pick up a second paper bag from the floor and took out two steaming paper cups from it. Levi recognized the logo on the cups as the coffee shop he’d been going to ever since his coffee machine broke and had to be sent in for repairs.

“Here, since you wouldn’t accept my money, I thought I’d get you a drink. A Caffè Americano, right?” She handed one of the cups over to Levi. Two very distinct scents rose up to his nose: one a rich aroma of java and another an odd but strangely familiar scent of… _tea?_

“You do realize that it’s currently 8PM on a weekday, don’t you? Not exactly the time to be drinking caffeinated drinks,” Levi stated out.

“Yeah, but it’s finals week. I bet you still have some unfinished assignments lying around your room…” She poked Levi’s abdomen playfully and nudged the cup towards him.

“Touché,” Levi muttered, taking the cup from her. He’d planned on continuing his paper the next day, but a head start wouldn't hurt, he supposed. “But just so you know, I have my own coffee machine. It’s just that it’s been broken for the past couple of days. I don’t usually go to coffee shops to get my coffee – just these past few days.”

Levi had no idea why he’d told her that. Why was he suddenly so keen on _talking?_

“That’s odd. I’ve never seen you in the shop except for that one day.”

“Someone volunteered to get my coffee for me. He knows how much I hate coffee shops.” What he didn’t tell her was that he’d offered to pay for both his and Farlan’s drinks if the latter would send his over to the dorm. Yes, it meant that he’d be eating ramen to compensate for the extra drinks, but it was more tolerable than going back to that godforsaken coffee shop.

“Why do you hate coffee shops so much?”

“Reasons.” To avoid the likes of her, he thought but didn’t say out loud. Well, her, and that walking blob of mucus and fat.

“Well, alright. I guess I’ll just head back and enjoy my drink, then. Earl Grey Latte tastes best when it’s hot, that’s what I heard. See you around!” She beamed and left, leaving Levi to wonder where the shy and stuttering girl had disappeared into, and which of the two Levi actually preferred having around.

He shook his head, willing he thought to go away. Why did it matter if she was shy or outgoing? They probably weren’t going to meet each other again, anyway.

Heck, he didn’t even know her _name_.

Levi waved the thought away and closed the door, turning around and walking towards his study table. After all, why did it matter if he knew her name or not? It didn’t matter. She might have a unique and interesting name, or a simple and common one, and it still wouldn’t matter.

Or, at least, it _shouldn’t_ matter, because she was nobody to Levi. She was nobody, was _a_ nobody, and she was indecisive, and noisy, and she was one to blush and stutter and bite her fucking lower lip when embarrassed, and, worst of all, she accused him of _blushing_.

So of course it didn’t matter to Levi whether or not he knew her name. She didn’t know his name, either. They were even and square.

Setting the cup of coffee on his table, he went to change into a t-shirt and a comfortable pair of sweatpants. Snug and comfortable, he sat down in front of his study table and opened his laptop, indulging in the audible whir of the machine as it came to life.

He browsed the internet for a while, losing himself in the midst of news articles and stupid viral videos forwarded by none other than Farlan, before finally opening up his essay file to continue on his paper.

As was par for the course, Levi took a big gulp of his accompanying coffee – tonight a warm cup of Caffè Americano – before typing anything up.

Only this time, instead of the usual bitter, brain-wakening taste of coffee, a sweet tang of vanilla and milk, along with the sudden burst of a somewhat citrusy flavor, hugged his tongue like an overly attached puppy. Yes, a terribly _sweet_ puppy with an oddly soothing scent.

Cringing at the non-bitterness of his drink, he put the cup down and opened its lid, a fragrant waft of citrus and lavender slapping him across the face. And, as predicted, what greeted him inside the cup wasn’t the dark brown liquid he’d grown so accustomed to seeing, but rather a light brown fluid topped with white froth.

Levi closed eyes and sighed. Really, what could he have expected from that airheaded redhead?

He closed the lid and took another sip, this time prepared for the sweetness that was coming. It wasn’t bad, not really, but he doubted that Earl Grey Latte had enough caffeine to keep him up until 3AM. Well, good thing his paper wasn’t due for at least two weeks from then.

He only hoped that, whatever activities the redhead had planned for that night, sleeping wasn’t one of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That coffee shop thing happened to me when I tried a new coffee shop in town. Sadly, however, it was a grumpy woman who scolded me instead of a (smoking hot) university senior.
> 
> Sigh.


	3. Present: Right Turn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Eren wants to play, Levi shoos him off, Eren goes to cry, and Levi steals his nose.

Levi was perfectly content with reading alone in his lonely corner. Really, he was.

He didn’t care that no one was talking to him. Of course he didn’t. He’d probably stab whoever _dared_ to disturb him whilst he was engrossed in a book.

He loathed human interaction. This was obvious from the way he opted to hide in a corner and read than play with a bunch of human-shaped saliva factory, or even talk to the people who were the reason the said factories even existed in the first place – well, most of them, anyway.

So then why, even with signs as clear as these, was one Eren Jaeger insisting that he was, in fact, the exact opposite of what he claimed to be?

“I am not lonely. I like being alone,” Levi informed the five-year-old for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. “Go back to your bricks.” And leave him alone so that he could actually finish the damned book, he thought.

“Okay,” Eren murmured, nodding slightly, before retreating back to his group of friends.

Levi tore his gaze from his book – _The Hound of the Baskervilles_ , believe it or not – and watched silently as the brunet rejoined Armin – that was his name, wasn’t it – and company in building what seemed to Levi as the Great Wall of China, albeit rather lopsided and, well, not at all that Great.

He sighed and returned to reading his book, cherishing what little amount of peace and quiet he could get before the whole process inevitably repeated itself.

Perhaps it was that he’d been reading a few of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s priceless short stories lately, and the famous Holmesian way of deduction and prediction had rubbed off on him. Or perhaps it was that his senses were just that good. Either way, Levi strongly believed that Sherlock Holmes would give him a pat in the back had he been there to witness Levi correctly predicting that Eren Jaeger would return to bug him some more after exactly five short minutes.

“Heichou, play with us,” Eren said just as Levi looked up from his book. “You look lonely.”

Levi sighed. “I am not lonely,” he recited his three-sentence line in the ever-repeating play. “I like being alone. Go back to your bricks.” His eyes found their way back to the words on his book.

“Okay.” Eren left, and Levi counted down until the boy’s return.

In all honesty, Levi would’ve been content with letting the whole cycle continue for the rest of the day – or, at least, until the children were due for their nap time, anyway. It was just that the book was _so interesting_ and had sucked him in the second he returned to it, and he was _just so close_ to finishing the book, that when Eren returned once again, he forgot that he was working – in a _daycare_ , no less – and that he was supposed to say the three sentences he’d been repeating for over an hour, and actually _snapped_ at the boy.

“What is your problem, kid? I’m not fucking lonely, so leave me the fuck alone, brat. Can’t you see that I’m reading?” Levi snapped, glaring furiously at the brunet looking up at him.

Needless to say, Eren had not been expecting this response, if his looking at his shoes and his quivering lips were any indication.

Oh shit, Levi thought when he realized what he’d done. Oh fucking shit.

Closing his book and setting it down beside him, Levi opened his mouth to say something – to apologise, perhaps; to cover up his outburst, more likely. But whatever he had planned to say died on his tongue when he heard faint but unmistakable whimpers coming from the child in front of him.

“I-I’m s-sorry, H-H-Heichou,” Eren stammered, his shoulders visibly shaking. Not once looking up at Levi, he continued, “I-I’m going to pee,” before quickly turning around and running out of the playroom.

Goddamn it. Even on the verge of tears, the kid still remembered to inform an adult before going to the toilet.

Levi stayed seated for half a minute, contemplating on what he should do. He couldn’t very well _ignore_ the fact that he’d just made a kid cry, but he couldn’t just go chase after the kid and expect him to just stop crying… could he?

He shook his head. Of course he couldn’t. His presence was the furthest thing from comfort, and even if he ran after Eren, what would he say? Soothing a crying child and apologizing had never been his forte. Heck, he’d never even been good in _talking_.

But if he couldn’t calm the toddler with words, he’d have to do something _physical_ , like patting or wiping his tears or, god forbid, _hugging_.

Levi groaned. No, no, this was not going to work. If he really was going to do something to right his wrong, he’d need help from an expert.

He looked around the room. Fortunately, he hadn’t shouted too loudly and Eren hadn’t sobbed out loud, and the rest of the people in the room were blissfully unaware of what happened. Oluo was busy playing indoor basketball using a bunch of crumpled paper and a waste bin in one side of the room. Hanji, seated legs crossed in the middle of the room, was surrounded by the vast majority of the girls, all of whom seemed to have developed a fascination for combing and styling her long and voluminous hair. Erd, Levi knew, was busy preparing lunch for later, and only god knew what Erwin was doing.

Levi sighed and stood up, forcing his legs to bring him to the one person in the building he knew – or was pretty certain, at least – wouldn’t gape at or make fun of his sudden decision to become social.

“Hanji,” he said when he was standing right in front of the woman. He forced himself to sound calm and indifferent and _normal_ , when in reality he knew he was actually worried out of his wits. Of what, he wasn’t quite sure.

The brunette tilted her head up from where she was sitting, eliciting high-pitched squeals from the girls seated behind her as, by doing so, she’d let more of her hair down.

“Ah, Levi! What can I help you with?” she asked. “Do you want to play with the kids? There are some over there who look like they need help with their bricks.” She nodded towards Armin’s group of friends before looking back at the raven with eyes blown wide and a million-watt smile on her lips. He wasn’t sure why she was suddenly so ecstatic; perhaps it was because, after a whole year of working in the daycare, Levi finally started a conversation with her instead of the other around, or maybe she had always been this ecstatic and he just wasn’t paying enough attention. The latter sounded more likely, which didn’t help the internal war of deciding whether or not he should ask for her help.

Maybe he shouldn’t do it after all… Maybe Eren was fine and he just needed to release –

No, Levi thought, mentally slapping himself. No, he had made Eren cry, and now he was going to make the kid smile, no matter how tedious and painstaking it might be.

“Err, no. I’m not here to play with the kids,” Levi answered. Every muscle on his face felt tense. “I need help with something.”

“Yes? What is that something?”

“You see… I…” Levi had no idea how to go about and tell Hanji what he did without sounding like a total dumbass. Or a jerk. Or a really dumb jerk. He bit the insides of his cheek, stifling a groan.

“Do you need to go to the toilet? If that’s the case, Oluo and I will be fine. The kids are behaving quite well –”

“No, I don’t need to go to the toilet.” Although he had an idea why Hanji might think he needed to: his face probably looked like one of a constipated old man right then, what with all the cheek-biting and muscle-tensing.

“Ah, then do you want to have an early lunch break?” Hanji guessed.

“No, Hanji, I do not want an early lunch break.”

“Um, do you need to run an errand?”

“No, it’s –”

“Do you need to change your apron?”

“Hanji, I made –”

“Want me to lower the air conditioner?”

Oh, fucking hell.

“Goddamn it, Hanji!” Levi hissed, trying to keep his frustration at bay. “I need help talking to a kid!”

Hanji stared at him for a good whole minute, blinking once, twice, before her brain finally registered what Levi had said. Then, she beamed so brightly, one would think that she found the solution to end world poverty.

Well, at least she didn’t _gawk_ at him.

“Girls, I’m sorry, but I need to talk to Levi for a while,” Hanji said to the girls around her, pulling her hair out of their grip. “I’ll be back soon and then you can comb my hair again, okay?” Some of the girls pouted, some of them eyed Levi curiously and others eyed him in fear. But nevertheless, all of them obeyed her without saying anything.

Hanji, Levi decided, could easily build herself an army of toddlers and take on the world if, for whatever reason, one day she wanted to. Levi made a mental reminder to not get on the brunette’s bad side.

Once Hanji was done fixing her hair in her usual ponytail and had walked together with Levi to the hallway just outside the play room, she said, with unnecessary vigour and fervor, “Okay. Tell me _everything_.”

Levi rolled his eyes, crossing his arms on his chest. Despite his actions, he really didn’t know what – or, rather, _how_ – to say.

Fuck it. She wanted him to tell him everything, and that was what he was going to do.

“I snapped at Eren because he wouldn’t stop bugging him. It made him cry and now he’s hiding in the toilet – after informing an adult, which was me. I have no idea how to comfort a crying kid, so now I’m here, asking for your help.” Levi might’ve broken the world record for the fastest talking speed. “Oh, don’t tell Erwin, if you don’t mind,” he added last minute. “Not really keen to get my ass fired.”

Hanji cocked an eyebrow, amusement clearly written on her face. She pressed her lips together tightly, trying to keep down the laughter that was bubbling inside her.

“Laugh if you want. Your eyes look like they’re going to pop out of their sockets any second,” Levi muttered. Without a moment’s hesitation, Hanji let out a deafening guffaw, leaning against the wall for support.

Once she settled down and regained whatever composure she ever had, she straightened herself and crossed her arms. “Took you long enough,” she said, a smile playing on her lips. When Levi narrowed his eyes in confusion, she explained, “We all snapped once or twice before. Oluo almost wet his pants when Jean cried out loud and reported him to Erwin. Oh god, it was hilarious.

“Anyway, when you came along, we were all wondering how long it’d take before you did the same. I’ve got to say, you broke all our record. Before you came along, I held record of the longest time being able to stand the kids without snapping, and that was 4 months after first started working here. One year is an impressive feat.” She gave him a thumbs-up, and Levi rolled his eyes again.

That was probably because he tended to avoid all contact with the kids, Levi thought. Stupid Eren and his stupid indefatigability. Why couldn’t he just be afraid of Levi like the rest of the kids were?

“So are you going to help me calm the brat or not?” he asked, his patience wearing thin. Although, hearing that everyone had snapped at some point or another did help ease the knot growing in his stomach, albeit just a bit.

“How was he bothering you?”

“He repeatedly came over to ask me to play with him and his friends and insisting that I was lonely.” It sounded so stupid when he said it out loud, but what can you do about it? Some things were just meant to sound stupid.

“Go apologise to him and do as he says.” Both of Hanji’s eyebrows went up, and she looked at him as if she knew that he would have something to say to what she just said.

“What, you want me to _play bricks_ with him and his group of friends? Don’t you remember what happened the last time you asked me to play bricks with those kids? Or is your memory that bad that you can’t even recall the events happening just the day before?”

“Rude,” Hanji sang. “But no. I doubt Eren even likes bricks. He’s been playing with dolls ever since he arrived here yesterday.”

“He was playing bricks before,” Levi couldn’t help but point out.

“And you say that he’s been restlessly going back and forth between the said bricks and yourself, _and_ that he was practically _begging_ you to play with him.”

“Him and his friends,” Levi corrected, but Hanji just looked at him, one brow crooked up, as if to say, “Really, Levi? _Really?_ ”

Levi waved her away. “Regardless,” he said. “Are you asking me to play _doll_ with him? Between the bricks and the dolls, I’m not sure which is worse.”

Hanji sighed, defeated, and Levi took great pleasure in witnessing this. “Well, you don’t necessarily have to play toys with him. I mean, I think the kid just wants to spend some time with you. He’s probably scared of the other kids.”

This time it was Levi’s turn to cock an eyebrow at Hanji. “Really, he wants to spend time with _me_ because he’s afraid of the _other kids?_ Hanji, I’m starting to seriously doubt the credibility of your psychology background.”

Hanji lit up suddenly, her eyes gleaming mischievously. “I _bet_ that he is scared of the other kids, not a fan of bricks, _and_ one of the few people who actually want to spend time with you.”

Not one to back down without a fight, Levi smirked and asked, “What are we betting on?”

“If I am right – and by that I mean that all three of my deductions are correct – you have to spend a whole month with him. You don’t get to watch over the kids from that godforsaken corner seat you’ve been occupying for the last year or so.”

“And what if you’re wrong?”

“You get to clean the plates after lunch and snack time.” When Hanji saw that Levi’s eyes slightly widened at her offer, she asked, “Do we have a deal?”

“Yes,” Levi answered instantaneously, and Hanji couldn’t help but smile at how utterly predictable he was.

“Okay then, off you go.” Hanji nudged the raven towards the male restroom. She gave him another thumbs-up and mouthed a silent ‘good luck’, before heading into the playroom, where she was greeted by a bunch of girls waiting to get their hands on her hair.

Levi walked towards the restroom, only stopping in front of the door when he realized that he didn’t know how he was going to spend time with Eren, because surely they couldn’t just sit there inside the toilet, staring at empty cubicles and urinals all day. For one thing, Levi would be so grossed out by the sheer amount of germs that he’d be tempted to get fucking Clorox from the storage room and clean the whole restroom, and he doubted that Eren would be very pleased to clean the restroom alongside him.

But… _dolls? Really?_

Levi waved the thought away. Before spending time with Eren – that was, _if_ the kid still wanted to play with him – he’d need to fish him out of the toilet first. Yes, he was going to do this one step at a time.

Taking in a deep breath, he braced himself for whatever was waiting for him inside the restroom – most probably a crying kid who’d be too traumatized to talk to him for the rest of his life – before opening the stereotypically blue door and stepping in the toilet.

The first thing he heard after entering the closed room wasn’t wailing – fortunately – but rather whispers and light sniffs.

“…Chou… Hei… Heichou…” the sound seemed to be saying.

Levi brushed aside the odd whispers. “Eren?” he called out, just as the door behind him closed shut with a soft thud. Slowly, he stepped in front of the only closed cubicle in the room.

Immediately, the whispers and sniffling stopped. The door to the cubicle in front of him opened slightly, revealing one green eye looking up at Levi.

“Eren, come out of the cubicle. It’s dirty in there,” Levi blurted out before he could stop himself. Clearing his throat, he tried again, this time making sure that his voice was as soft and gentle as it could get – which, of course, wasn’t saying much.

Eren didn’t put up a fight, and before long, he was out of the cubicle and was standing front of Levi, hands clutching the hem of his shirt. He looked at Levi from underneath his eyelashes.

Levi squatted down in front of the child, elbows resting on his knees. Eren lowered his head, letting his hair partially cover his eyes as he continued to look at Levi.

“Look, Eren,” Levi started, hands unfurling from the fists that he wasn’t aware he had made. “I’m sorry I yelled at you.”

Eren shook his head slightly. “N-no… I’m sorry for disturbing Heichou…”

“Are you angry at me, Eren?” Levi asked. He silently told himself that whatever came out of the child’s mouth wouldn’t – _shouldn’t_ – matter to him, but he had a feeling that he was deliberately lying to himself.

Eren, much to Levi’s relief, shook his head. “No, I’m not angry at Heichou. It was Eren’s mistake.” Levi could see that his lips were trembling.

“Were you crying, Eren?”

The child’s head shot up, his green eyes wide, and – if Levi wasn’t mistaken – his cheeks tinted with a light shade of pink.

“No! I wasn’t crying!” Eren exclaimed, his hands clenching his shirt even tighter. “Eren never cries!”

“Oho? Is that so? Then why were you sniffling?” Levi pinched the brunet’s nose lightly, earning a grunt of complain from the kid.

“I wasn’t sniffling! Eren would never cry!”

“You were _definitely_ sniffling before I came in. I could hear you from outside.” Levi wasn’t sure why, but he found great joy in teasing the child - something he had never felt before.

“I was not! Let go of my nose! Eren wasn’t crying!” When Levi didn’t let go of his nose, Eren began throwing amateurishly aimed punches at the raven’s arm.

“Ouch ouch, it hurts!” Levi feigned a pained expression, both eyes clenched shut in pain, and held his arm against his chest. “I think you broke a bone, Eren! It hurts, it hurts!”

“That’s – that’s what you get for saying that I cried!” Eren crossed his arms and looked the other way. But when Levi remained silent and was still clutching his arm, Eren slowly turned his head, taking a peek at the man. “Heichou?”

Levi opened one of his closed eyes, peeking at the child. “I really think you broke a bone. I can’t move my arm, Eren,” he choked out, failing at stifling down a chuckle, but it might have given his voice the intended effect.

Eren whirled around and grabbed the arm Levi was holding. “N-no it’s not! I can fix it! See? Your bone is still in your arm! It’s not broken… right?” He looked up at Levi, eyes gleaming in fear.

Chuckles threatened to bubble up Levi’s chest the second he saw how afraid he’d made Eren. He bit down on his lip to keep them down, but another look at the brunet and those large round eyes looking at him intently and worriedly just sent him laughing his ass off.

This, however, only served to confuse the said brunet.

“Heichou…?” Eren asked softly.

“I’m just kidding,” Levi said once he’d stopped laughing. “No, you didn’t break my bones. You’ll have to grow stronger if you ever want to do that.”

Eren looked at him for a second, and Levi could see the gears working in his head. “So, Heichou is fine?” Eren asked, just to be sure.

“Yes, yes, I’m fine.” The corner of Levi’s lips perked up as he ruffled the messy mop of brown hair in front of him. “I’m just kidding.”

Eren let out a sigh of relief, but despite that, his grip on Levi’s sleeve didn’t loosen.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. You can let go of my sleeve now,” Levi cooed. At this, Eren immediately released his furled fists and placed his hands by his sides.

“Sorry,” he murmured underneath his breath.

“So are we okay now?” Levi asked. When Eren gave him a feverish nod, he continued, “Can we go back to the playroom, then?”

Eren’s head stopped nodding then, his eyes downcast.

“Eren.” Levi took hold of one of Eren’s minuscule hands and held it in his own. “Do you not like the playroom?”

Eren remained silent as a rock.

Great, Levi thought. Now what was he supposed to do?

Sighing, Levi leaned forward and pinched the brunette’s cheek. “Hey brat, just tell me what you’re thinking already.”

Eren lifted his gaze. “I – I like the playroom,” he murmured.

“So why don’t you want to go back to the playroom? All your friends are there.”

Eren lifted the hand Levi was holding, releasing it from the man’s grip. He held out his little finger, saying, “Promise not to tell anyone?”

Levi groaned internally. No, he was not going to make a pinkie swear with a five-year-old. He was _not_ going to –

“Promise.” Levi’s small finger entwined the boy’s outstretched one.

_Fucking hell._

Satisfied with the promise, Eren leaned towards Levi until he was close enough to whisper in his ear.

“I’m scared of my friends,” the child whispered, quickly straightening himself afterwards and taking a great interest in his shoes. Levi mentally cursed because this meant that Hanji was right about one thing.

“Is that why you’ve been asking me to play with you?” When he received a nod in reply, he couldn’t help but ask, “You’re not afraid of me?”

Eren looked at him then, tilting his head to the side. “Why would I be afraid of Heichou?” he asked, and Levi wasn’t sure whether it was pride or genuine curiosity that was embedded in Eren’s tone.

Damn that bespectacled little shit, Levi thought.

“Okay then,” Levi breathed out, standing up and brushing himself off. “Why don’t you play with me somewhere else? We’ll have to go back and get some toys, though. What do you want to play?”

Levi didn’t think it was possible for Eren’s eyes to get even brighter than they already were, but they positively lit up at Levi’s words.

“Eh, but Heichou was busy reading,” Eren pointed out, the fire in his eyes receding. “It’s okay, I can play with Armin. I’m not that scared of him.” The last sentence was uttered almost inaudibly.

Levi tried. He really, _really_ did. He tried to hold back his question because… Well, it wasn’t because he was afraid of the answer he might get – or, at least, he refused to believe that it was so. It was just that this was hardly the best time to bring the topic up… But alas, curiosity got the better him and he couldn’t stop himself from asking, “Do you like playing bricks?” He prayed to whatever deity was unfortunate enough as to be given the duty of watching over him that the answer to his question is an affirmative.

He supposed that the said deity was sick and tired of taking care of him in the pathetic life he lived, however, because just as the question escaped his mouth, Eren shook his head so vigorously that he wondered whether or not the kid would give himself a concussion.

Or, at least, he _would’ve_ wondered that had he not been too distracted by what the gesture meant for him.

“You have to spend a whole month with him,” Hanji’s voice echoed in his head, and he fought the urge to bang his head on the wall.

“So,” Levi said, trying his best not to let his frustration show, “what do you want to play?”

Eren scratched his head for a while, trying to think of something he wanted to play. Finally, he settled for, “May I watch you read?”

The corner of Levi’s lips curved up in amusement. “What, you don’t want to play doll with me? What a shame…”

The child looked absolutely panic-stricken. “Eh! If that’s what Heichou wants to do then –”

“Just messing with you, brat.” Levi ruffled the top of Eren’s head, earning a grunt from the brunette. “Why don’t I read to you instead?”

Eren perked up at this, punching the air with his fist and shouting a terribly loud, “Yeah!”

Hopefully he wouldn’t be traumatizing the kid by reading _The Hound of the Baskervilles_ to him at such a young age, Levi thought, but then shook the notion away. He doubted Eren would even understand half the words in it, anyway.


	4. Past: Mystery Solved

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Farlan questions Levi's masculinity and Levi questions Farlan's heterosexuality. And one mystery solved.

At precisely 8 in the morning, the door to Levi’s room burst open, allowing a blast of winter air to sweep in the room, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee tagging along like a hitchhiker on a truck.

Yes, a heartless, cold, and completely covered in ice and biting arctic snow worth of a truck that kicked out whatever warmth was in the room from the heater and didn’t hesitate to run over the sleeping college senior bundled up in his bed.

“What the – _fuck_ ,” Levi gasped out of bed, hands wrapping around his shoulders to pull his comforter around him.

“Wake up, wake up!” an all-too-familiar voice sang. “You’re going to be late to class if you don’t get ready soon.”

The only reply offered were a disgruntled groan and the drowsy man flopping back down to bed.

“Levi. Rise and shine, _Levi_ ,” Farlan sang, setting down both his and his sleeping friend’s coffee on the table, only to notice the half-full paper cup filled with a drink too brown to be milk but too white to be coffee. “Is that a tea latte?” he asked, making his way towards the bed. Shaking the bump in the middle of blankets and comforters, he continued, “I didn’t know you were in to tea lattes. I would’ve gotten you a tea latte if you’d told me you liked tea lattes.”

Levi ducked his head out of his comforter and glared at his horrible excuse of an acquaintance – because Levi did _not_ have _friends_ , and no matter how Farlan insisted that they were, they weren’t and never would be.

“Say _‘tea latte’_ one more time and I swear to whatever _god_ you devote your stupid, inconsequential life to that I will castrate you and the child you decide to adopt with your equally shitty and insignificant spouse,” Levi grumbled, glaring at his friend some more before finally groggily sitting up. “And close the fucking door, would you? It’s colder than a polar bear’s balls in here.”

While most people would cringe and cower in fear at the statement, Farlan knew Levi enough to figure out that he was at least bluffing about one third of what he said. This meant that at least his future adopted child would be safe from the shorter man’s menace.

Chuckling and walking towards the door to close it, Farlan chatted away. “I’m Christian,” he informed the raven, who was untangling the comforter from his body. “And the fact that you can be so eloquent with your threat before your morning coffee scares the hell out of me.”

“ _Hell_ ,” Levi repeated, raising a hand to cover up his yawn. “Isn’t that, like, one of those shits your people aren’t supposed to use so casually?”

“It isn’t a place we would like to go to, either, but look at where I am right now.” When Farlan saw the glare Levi was shooting him, he went and patted him on the head. “I was referring to the heater. Don’t look so heartbroken, honey,” he deadpanned, pursing his lips and making kissing noises.

Levi swatted his hand away. “You little shit,” he murmured, standing up and making his way to the bathroom.

“Watch who you’re calling little,” Farlan called, because while he wasn’t necessarily tall for men his age, Levi was definitely much shorter than him.

Characteristically, Levi replied him with two words, one of which was a profanity starting with an _f_ , the other an adverb rhyming with _‘cough’_.

 

* * *

 

“So, what’s up with the tea latte?” Farlan asked as they walked towards the economics building where they’d be having their morning lecture in.

Levi kicked a rock lying in front of him, watching as it rolled down the sidewalk. “What’s wrong with tea lattes?”

“Just seems a bit… mellow for you.” Farlan said nonchalantly, shrugging and stuffing his gloved hands into the pocket of his parka. “I thought you were a firm believer in beans.”

“I am.” As if to prove this, Levi gulped down the remaining coffee in his paper cup, exhaling contently. “Long story short, some girl showed up last night and accidentally gave me her latte.” He cringed at the horrible excuse of a summary, but refused to explain what happened in more detail.

Farlan’s brows went up as high as they could, and instead of asking how someone could ‘accidentally’ give someone something, or _why_ someone had suddenly showed up bearing drinks, or – heck – whether or not Levi had managed to get himself some action with the said person last night, he asked, “A _girl_ showed up in front of your room last night and gave you a drink? Really? A _girl?_ ” Because, of course, out of everything that Levi just told him, the fact that his guest was, in fact, of the opposite gender was the most important information of all.

“You say that as if I was a gay recluse incapable of having female company.”

“Well… I’m not so sure about your sexual orientation, but the rest of the statement seems pretty spot on.”

Levi rolled his eyes and gave him the finger. “Like you’re any better than I am.”

“Says the person who hasn’t dated since _ever,_ to the person who just went on his third date last night.” A smug smile crept its way up the brunet’s lips. “Isabel Magnolia… Man, she’s perfect.”

Levi cocked one his brows. “Third date, huh? I’ve got to say, this Isabel person is a very patient and tolerant girl. Most people can’t even stand being with you for more than ten minutes.”

“Except you, that is,” Farlan pointed out, nudging the shorter man’s arm with his elbow.

Not missing a beat, Levi replied. “What can I say? I’m a very patient and tolerant guy.”

At this, Farlan burst out laughing, and the corner of Levi’s lips curved upwards just ever so slightly.

 

* * *

 

“So, who was the girl?”

Levi turned to face Farlan, who was seated by his left side in the lecture hall, annoyed that he was disturbed in the middle of class. He wasn’t necessarily the most attentive student in class, but he didn’t see the logic of attending morning classes if he wasn’t going to at least learn something useful.

“What?” he spat out, not bothering to hide the irritation in his voice.

“The girl from last night, the one who gave you the latte. Your girlfriend?” Farlan wriggled his eyebrows, and Levi felt the urge to punch him in the face. “Tell me, did you two get into some action last night? Hm?”

“Not my girlfriend,” Levi muttered coldly, returning his attention Professor Velde in front of the room going on about purchasing power parity, and that exchange rates between currencies are in equilibrium when their purchasing power is the same in each of the two countries, and that if Levi and the others didn’t know this by then, they must be ashamed of themselves because that was very basic stuff.

“Oooh,” Farlan sang. “One night stand, was it? Tell me, tell me, was she –”

“This is why you often fail your assessments,” Levi interrupted before Farlan could finish his question about the girl and Levi’s nonexistent sex experience. “Now shut up.”

Farlan pouted at the command, but complied anyway. Crazy as he was, he still valued his life above knowledge of Levi’s love affairs – albeit just by a bit. Besides, he could use listening to lectures once in a while, because, while his grades were okay in the sense that he wouldn’t be detained a year in university, they weren’t exactly what one would describe as good.

After ten minutes of silence between the two men, Farlan decided that it was alright to start questioning his friend – yes, _his friend_ – about the Nameless Woman from Last Night, and proceeded with his string of questions.

“Come on! Tell me, you two did something last night, didn’t you?” Farlan nudged the Levi’s left arm, which happened to be his writing hand, effectively pushing the nib of Levi’s pen across the page.

Levi froze, eyes locked on his notes, watching as a thick black line across the notes he’d been writing the whole lecture stared smugly back at him from the paper.

The line didn’t necessarily ruin his notes; he could still read the words he’d written without much trouble. Sure, his PPF graph looked odd now that a crooked black line was cutting through the smooth curve, but he’d probably understand it nonetheless. Besides, he could just look it up on Google if he really forgot how it really looked like.

Had he not have a mild OCD going on in his brain, he’d probably just shrug it off and continue writing. But the fact remained that he indeed had OCD, and that all his notes in university – and even high school – thus far were immaculate, all his graphs meticulous, precise and wholly _unblemished_ by lines that did not belong on them.

And so, instead of shrugging it off, Levi took a deep breath in and cracked his knuckles, one at a time, and everyone in their immediate vicinity was able to hear the audible gulp and the loud thrashing of Farlan’s poor, little heart.

The cry of pain that echoed through the hall when Levi’s fist met Farlan’s arm would be enough to scare even the bravest of lions away.

“Mr. Church!” Professor Velde called out, feet stomping the floor quite comically. “Just _what_ do you think you’re doing?”

“S-sorry, Sir!” Farlan stuttered, still biting the inside of his cheek from the rippling pain. “I didn’t mean to –”

Professor Velde scoffed, “You scream like a girl, Mr. Church. If I were you, I’d save my opera singing to strictly shower times only.” This elicited an uproarious laughter from the other students in class, and Farlan sighed. Leave it to Professor Velde to completely humiliate his own pupils in front of his class.

“Jesus Christ,” Farlan hissed once Professor Velde continued with his lecture. “Was that really necessary?”

“Yes,” came the unwavering reply.

“I take it that you guys didn’t do anything other than her sending over a drink, then?”

“She sent over the scarf you gave me, laundered. She spilled her drink on it earlier this week.” When Farlan remained silent, Levi said, “Long story.” Farlan hummed in response.

After a while, Farlan broke the silence again. “Sorry about your notes,” he whispered. “I know you have your OCD thing going on.”

“Sorry about your dignity,” Levi replied, continuing his notes below the mark. He’d have to rewrite his notes once he got back. “I know you have your ego thing going on.”

“You would, too,” Farlan said, pouting, “if you’re actually interested in someone.”

It could’ve just been Farlan’s imagination going wild as a side effect of getting punched by Levi, but at that moment, Farlan thought that he’d heard Levi say, “I might be.”

 

* * *

 

By the time the lecture ended, the sun was already high up in the sky, glaring down at students who either had only woken up several minutes ago and were hurrying to get to their classes on time, or had been desperately trying to stay awake throughout the morning classes they’d just been dismissed from.

“So,” Farlan said as he and Levi made their way out of the lecture hall and into the awaiting winter afternoon. “Where are you headed to now? Want to get some coffee?”

“Back to my room,” Levi answered, shouldering his backpack. “And we just drank coffee this morning.”

“We’ve had one, yes. But what about second coffee?” Farlan asked in a horrible excuse of a british accent, shooting him a shit-eating grin.

“Can’t, Pippin. I need to rewrite my notes from today.”

“Aw, come on. You can rewrite it there with me! Come on. Don’t make me feel like such a shit.”

Levi casted a side glance at Farlan. “That’s because you _are_ a shit.” He shrugged.

“You know what, I’ll treat you a coffee to make up for that goddamned scratch on your notes. Just come with me, will you?”

Levi cocked his head to the side. “For a Christian, you sure use god’s name in vain a lot, don’t you?” he pointed out. “Are you sure you’ll be admitted to heaven when you die? Because, between this and your affinity to talk about premarital sex as if it’s a sport, I highly doubt you’ll get past those heavenly gates when you die slipping on a banana peel.”

“As much as I want to retort right now, don’t think that your attempt in changing the subject went unnoticed.”

Levi groaned. “Fine,” he drawled out. “But if you were so desperate for company, why didn’t you ask Isabel to go out with you?”

“Yes, I thought of that, but she has noon classes on Fridays,” Farlan huffed morosely. “Stupid noon classes…”

“So I’m basically filling in for your girlfriend, then?”

Farlan perked up at that and swung a hand around the shorter man’s shoulders. “Relax, you’re doing fine.” After a sigh and a roll of the eyes from his shorter friend, he steered both of them towards the nearest coffee shop from the campus.

Walking into a coffee shop in the afternoon on a weekday truly was heaven. The crowd had thinned out considerably compared to the usual morning rush – most probably because the high school students were at school, the office workers were at work, and the college students (the ones who had any strain of sanity and logic left, at least) were either in class, sleeping or getting a proper lunch while they could.

The barista behind the counter stood up from where she was playing with her phone and welcomed the two men.

“What can I get you today?” she asked in a tone that had obviously been practiced to perfection. “Would you like to try today’s special, Peppermint Mocha?”

“No, thank you.” Farlan smiled, reading the menu behind her. “I’ll get a Caramel Brulée Latte.”

“Succumbing to Christmas specials, are we now?” Levi asked.

The corners of Farlan’s lips perked up. “Yeah, well, can’t leave you all mellow by yourself with your tea lattes and lack of a sexual life,” he snickered, earning a stifled laughter from the barista. “Now, what do you want?”

Glaring at no one in particular, Levi spat out his order. “Americano – double-shot of Espresso.”

“That’ll be seven seventy-five,” the barista said, inputting their order.

Farlan fished out a bill and paid for their drinks, all the while whispering, “Drinking up all that bitterness in attempt to regain your manliness, huh?”

One would be lying if they said that Farlan didn’t have a death wish.

 

* * *

 

“Your handwriting is cute,” Farlan said into the palm of his hand. “It’s so cute. Like you. You’re cute.”

Not lifting his gaze from the paper he was writing on, Levi deadpanned, “You know, I’ve been thinking about this for quite a while now, but I really question your sexual orientation. Poor Isabel…”

Farlan scoffed. “You _wish_ I was flirting with you, brother dear.”

“I really don’t,” Levi said under his breath.

“It really is cute though, your handwriting,” Farlan continued, one hand gesticulating around in the air, babbling on as he lazily stared at the man sitting across him, furiously scribbling down Economics notes. “It’s got the… the _femininity_ of _–_ ”

“There is a solid line,” Levi interjected before he could continue his attempt in jabbing Levi’s self-esteem, “between _neat_ , which is what my handwriting is, and _cute_ , which is what you use to describe prepubescent twats, My Little Pony, and – on some horrible occasions – your _girlfriends_.”

Farlan lifted his head from the palm he was leaning on, suddenly leaning into and scrutinizing the raven with such intensity that when the latter lifted his head to see why the former had become so quiet, he had to pull himself back to prevent their heads from clashing against each other.

“What the actual fuck, Farlan?” Levi asked, pushing his chair out to put some more distance between them.

“Levi,” Farlan said, serious. His hands shot up and grabbed Levi by the shoulders, not allowing him to escape any further. “Answer me honestly, okay?” When Levi only raised his eyebrow in response, he continued, “Are you – do you happen to be a… _brony?_ ”

There was a sort of solid, almost tangible second between the initial shock – expressed completely by the furrowing of Levi’s brows – and the moment Levi decided that he’d had enough stupidity for one day and head-butted the man in front of him right in the forehead.

To say that Levi enjoyed the cry of pain that filled the whole shop would be a massive understatement.

“What’d you have to do that for?” Farlan wailed, rubbing the reddening spot on his forehead and sending accusatory glare at Levi. “I didn’t know you were such a closet brony… You could’ve just said so.” He then continued on to ramble about how domestic violence was a major issue in the world and _just because he was a male didn’t mean that he couldn’t feel pain, sexist bastard._

Grunting, Levi pinched the bridge of his nose and glared up at the smirking man in front of him. “I am _not_ a brony and we are _not_ a domestic couple.”

Farlan pouted in mock sadness and placed a hand over his chest. “Why do you keep on denying our relationship, Levi?  I’ve accepted your unyielding love for deformed, multicoloured horses. What else do I have to do to make you admit how indefatigably in love you are with me in public? I _told_ you I’ll try to change my habit of eating in bed – I know how much you hate having crumbs stuck to your sweaty skin when we’re making _sweet, delicious love_ –” and of course, he just had to emphasise the last three words because where would the fun be if he hadn’t? – “Why can’t you understand that I want to make our relationship public, Levi?”

Between his denial of being in a relationship with the brunet and the brunet’s horrifyingly disgusting soliloquy, Levi had started shoving – as gently as he could as to minimize the creases on his notes – his book into the battered backpack he’d carried with him there, and was already standing up to leave by the time Farlan finished his speech.

“Hey, hey, where are you going?” Farlan asked, pouting.

“Away from you, you delirious little shit,” came the monotonous reply, which only deepened Farlan’s pout.

“Aw, come on. You’re no fun.”

“Yeah, well.” Levi shrugged his bag onto his shoulders, sighing. “My definition of fun doesn’t involve sitting in a coffee shop trying to finish my work, but failing to do so because my shit excuse of –” he had to bite his tongue to avoid saying _‘a friend’_ – “ _company_ can’t drag himself out of his shit dream world in which _I was his fucking sex mate_.”

Levi was panting hard, glaring at the man seated in front of him who was desperately trying to swallow his laughter and bite off his smile but couldn’t because he was just that big of an ass. That was, of course, until an unmistakably different voice barged into their not-very-private conversation and startled the both of them.

“Who is whose fucking sex mate?”

Levi and Farlan both whirled around upon hearing the question, both surprised and undeniably embarrassed – albeit the former more than the latter. The difference between the two men, however, lay in the way they reacted after registering the person who had interrupted their intense stare down.

And that meant, of course, that Levi was growling under his breath and raking his fingers on his cheeks, muttering why the hell he kept on bumping into the fucking girl, while Farlan stood still.

“Me,” Levi sighed, exhausted and worn. “I’m his fucking sex mate.”

The redhead kept her eyes locked on Levi, staring, face frozen with an expression of utter confusion, and Levi had never wanted to end his life as much as he did then. And when she slowly nodded in understanding, Levi had never wanted to end Farlan’s life as much as he did then.

“I never knew you were gay,” she said with a curl in her tone at the end of the statement, as if it amused her that he was gay.

“No, I’m not Gay. I’m Levi,” the raven deadpanned.

The girl blinked quickly a few times, before finally muttering out, “I’m sorry, what?”

“My name. It’s Levi, not Gay. And I’m coincidentally not gay either.” Turning to his silent company, Levi decided to introduce Farlan too, because why the hell not. “This is my supposed sex mate, Farlan. He’s not gay, too – or, at least, I hope he’s not. If he was, then I pity his girlfriend.” Turning back, Levi added, “And you?”

The girl was taken aback by the sudden wave of information, but was quick to answer, “I’m Petra, and no, I’m not gay either.”

Well, that solves the name mystery, then.

“Well, Petra and Farlan,” Levi said, slinging his bag over one shoulder. “If you two don’t mind, I need to go finish my notes in the dorm now. Petra, feel free to take my seat and get to know Farlan over there. Beware though, he’s slightly delusional and can sometimes forget his sexual orientation. Have a good day.”

And as he was walking out of the coffee shop and into the unforgiving winter afternoon, he cringed at his horrible excuse of an exit phrase, cursed himself for leaving Petra alone with Farlan, and felt like killing himself after making that stupid fatheresque joke – really, who did that anymore? _I’m sad, daddy. Hello Sad, I’m Daddy._ Dear God…

But most of all, what Levi would end up regretting most was the fact that he’d told them he’d be in his room, because not half an hour after he had sat down on his chair and started on his work, a knock intruded his sterile working atmosphere.

Opening his door, he was greeted by an impertinent cup of latte, a small but suspicious-looking foil packaging of who-knows-what and a piece of paper that said:

_“Don’t worry. Convinced her you’re not gay and that we’re not fucking each other. –F_

_P.S. She might be interested in fucking you, though. Just FYI. Here’s some protection, Aragorn.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really sorry for updating late (if anybody's even following this story). Exams and school have been quite... unforgiving.


	5. Present: Eucalyptus and Koalas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Eren plays the Kendama, and Levi makes a horrible metaphor.

“Good morning, Heichou!”

Stifling a yawn, Levi turned his head just in time to watch as the five-year-old ran towards where he was sitting in the corner of the room, his backpack – bright yellow and definitely too big for him – hopping from side to side. He wore a horribly large smile on his face.

Levi sighed, wondering how and why kids could be so cheerful so early in the morning. Meanwhile, he’d drunk a cup of double-shot Americano and still felt as though elephants were hanging on his eyelids, attached by his eyelashes, ultimately weighing them down. He blamed the dreams, because, while he had no problem waking up in the morning, staying awake throughout the day, however, was a whole other problem.

“Morning,” Levi replied groggily as the child stopped right in front of him, hands clutching the shoulder straps of his bag. Ruffling the thick brown mop on top of his head, Levi asked, “What do you want to do today?”

Eren’s eyes visibly went brighter at the mention of today’s activity. “Grandma gave Eren a toy yesterday because I was a good boy!” he exclaimed, shrugging off his bag and unzipping it. From it, he took out a cross-shaped wooden rod, wide and concave at three ends but pointy and the other, with a red ball attached to the intersection by a string. He lifted it high, as high as he possibly could, as if to give it all the attention and glory it deserves, and handed it over to Levi.

Levi cocked an eyebrow, taking the toy from the child. “Your grandma gave you a _kendama_?” he asked, inspecting the worn wooden handle – the _Ken,_ if you would – on which were faded stripes of red, green and blue.

“Yeah, that!” Eren said after placing his bag next to Levi’s chair. “Has Heichou played it before?”

Uncoiling the string slowly, Levi answered, “Sure I have. We’ve had plenty of this when I was growing up.”

Eren tugged at Levi’s polka dotted apron. “Teach me! Teach me! Grandma said she was too slow so play it now, so Eren has to ask someone else.”

Rubbing his eyes to get the drowsiness out of his system, Levi asked, “Can’t you get Hanji to teach you?”

Eren pouted, whining, “But you said you could play it… Why can’t you teach me instead?”

“I’m tired, brat.” And as if to show just how tired he was, Levi finally let out the yawn he’d been keeping in. “Hey, Hanji!” he called out to the woman sitting, as always, in the middle of the room, the centre of attention. “Can you teach Eren how to play the _kendama_?”

Turning around from the pile of bricks in front of her, she answered, “No can do, Levi. _Someone_ lost a bet, so _someone_ has to teach Eren how to play the _kendama_.” And as if what she said wasn’t irritating enough, she had to top it off with a shit-eating grin than made Levi really wish killing someone wasn’t illegal. But that could just be Levi being Levi.

“I want you to teach me how to play the _kemdan_ ,” Eren exclaimed, tugging at Levi’s apron. “You can play the _kemdan_ , can’t you?”

Levi sighed. He really ought to step up his caffeine if this spending-time-with-Eren thing was serious. A double-shot wouldn’t do. Perhaps a triple-shot espresso might help? He decided to give it a shot tomorrow.

“Heichou?” Eren called, hands still tugging the apron.

“It’s _kendama_ , not _kemdan_ ,” Levi said. Bending down, he carried Eren up and put him over his shoulder, earning a high-pitched squeal from the child.

“Where are we going?” Eren asked, craning his neck to get a good look on the man carrying him.

“The yard,” Levi answered, pushing Eren’s head down as he let out another yawn. “You want me to teach you how to play the _kendama_ , don’t you?”

He had to force the corner of his lips down when the boy let out a joyful squeal.

 

* * *

 

 

 “Your grip is totally wrong,” Levi muttered for the umpteenth time, peeling the child’s fingers away from the toy. “For this one you need to have two fingers on the small cup, there you go, and then the others in the – no, no don’t move your thumb like that. Stay. Okay, yes, keep it that way.”

Stepping away, Levi crossed his arms and nodded, signaling Eren to pull the ball up. Eren did, albeit not very gracefully and in the proper direction, and the ball rose up just ever so slightly, before making a U-turn and falling back down. Disgruntled, Eren pouted and looked at Levi, as though his inability to _pull the goddamned ball up_ was somehow the raven’s fault.

“What?” Levi asked. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“You said _kemdans_ are easy to play.” Eren’s pout became ever more prominent.

“They’re called _kendamas_ , brat,” Levi sighed, “and they _are_ easy to play.”

“But how come Eren can’t play it?”

Because he sucked, Levi thought. Out loud, he said, “Try giving it some more power.” He shrugged and yawned.

Eren nodded, breathing in deeply as though he was about to do something serious rather than just pulling a ball up by a string. Gripping the handle tightly, he threw his arm into the air, and Levi didn’t even bother seeing the results because that was _not_ how you play the _kendama_. Needless to say, he wasn’t surprised when he heard a soft thud followed by a cry of pain from Eren, who promptly threw the toy to the ground.

“I hate this!” Eren shouted, lips and limbs quivering. “This is hard! Eren hates this!”

“No, don’t – don’t you dare!” Levi sprung up and squatted down in front of the child as he brought two clenched fists near his face, ready to rub his tearing eyes. Lowering his voice, he said, “No, don’t cry. Eren, don’t cry. Look at me, Eren.”

Eren peeked up, biting his lips to keep himself from crying. “E-Eren wasn’t crying,” he stuttered. “Eren never cries.”

“Yeah, well,” Levi murmured, taking Eren’s hands in his and bringing them away from his face. “You look pretty close to crying right now.”

“Eren doesn’t cry, Heichou. Eren never cries,” Eren said, more to convince himself than to inform the man.

“Exactly. Eren never cries, so don’t you dare start now.” Levi lifted Eren’s face to see him directly in the eyes. “Promise me you won’t cry?” he asked, holding out his little finger because he’d practically lost all his dignity the last time he’d done it – what was there to save?

Eren gave him the slightest of nods and looped his finger around the raven’s outstretched one. Satisfied with this response, Levi stood up, ruffling the brunet’s brown hair as he always did –

“Ouch!”

Levi let go of Eren’s head. “Are you hurt?” he asked although it was a rather stupid thing to do. Of _course_ he was hurt. Why else would he flinch for?

Even so, however, Eren shook his head.

“No need to put up the brave face, brat. Where does it hurt?”

Eren looked up at Levi through the overgrowth that was his bangs, before quickly casting his gaze downwards again. Chewing on his lip, he answered, “My head. It hurts.” He pointed at a spot just slightly to the right of the center of his scalp. “The _kemdan_ hit it.”

“Ah, I see,” Levi said.

He felt the urge to apologize for ruffling his head, but swallowed it down before it could actually escape his mouth. No, he was not going to start taking up apologizing as a habit. He was _not_.

“Yeah, _kemdans_ hate Eren.” The child looked at his toy on the ground, dejected and alone, with eyes that were neither sad nor angry, but rather somewhere in between. Looking at it, Levi could only think of a puppy accidentally being kicked by its owner. Yes, a green-eyed, brown-furred puppy with a slightly unhealthy obsession over not crying.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Levi said, picking up the toy and inspecting it in his hand. Great, he had to clean the toy now. “ _Kendamas_ can’t hate anything. They’re non-living things.”

“But that _kemdan_ hit Eren!” Eren pouted, pointing an accusatory finger at the _kendama_ in Levi’s hand.

Levi sighed.

“ _I am so very sorry I hit your god-awful head, Eren. Please forgive me. I’m really, really, really sorry for hitting your head,_ ” Levi said in a very shrill and… _feminine_ voice, waving the toy around like a Barbie doll.

What the hell am I doing with my life, he thought, grimacing internally. Fuck kids. Fuck life. Fuck _everything_.

His thoughts, however, vanished together along with Eren’s pout, a wide and toothy smile taking its place. The child laughed heartily, and said, “ _Kemdans_ cannot talk. Heichou is so silly!”

“Watch who you’re calling silly, you rascal,” Levi warned half-heartedly. He looked at his watch, before picking Eren up and setting him on his arm. “Okay, enough playing for today. You can continue honing your _kendama_ skills tomorrow.”

“Are we going back to the playroom?” Eren asked, wrapping his arms around the man’s neck. “I don’t want to play with the children. Can I play with you inside?”

“I don’t really have a choice but to say yes,” Levi muttered. When he saw that Eren was still looking at him for an answer, he groaned, “Yes, Eren. You can still play with me inside. Just not with the _kendama_.”

The brunet squealed, tightening his grip on Levi’s neck and rubbing his hair against his cheek.

“What a brat you are,” Levi muttered under his breath. Even then, however, he couldn’t help but lean his cheek against the boy’s head just ever so slightly, wishing that the mop of brown hair would be sufficient in hiding his smile as they entered the building.

 

* * *

 

After lunch, all the kids were ushered out of the playroom – in a single-file line, of course – and into the napping room down the hall. There, they were guided to their futons in pairs, matched according to their gender and order of application, and tucked in, ready for bed.

And because he was the last person to enroll in the odd-numbered daycare, Eren was guided to a baby-blue futon by the corner of the room, all for himself. Not that he minded, of course. The only boy he could ever imagine spending time together with was Armin, and that was only for an hour at most. Any longer than that and he’d start having a panic attack.

“Okay, there you go, Eren,” said Hanji as she finished tucking him in. “Sleep well.”

Eren, whose eyelids were already starting to droop, nodded and curled up to one side of the futon, one leg sticking out of the comforter and touching the floor. Before long, the room was filled with nothing but the light breathing of sleeping toddlers.

In the playroom, Levi was busy picking up the abandoned plates from the children’s lunch and throwing them into a basin to be washed later. Usually, the prospect of cleaning and washing excited him to no end, but right then he just felt exhausted.

Damn that kid, he thought as he was scraping the left over peas from a red plastic plate. Damn that kid and his ability to suck the life out of people.

“Levi!” Hanji greeted him as she walked into the playroom. “How uncommonly odd it is to see you look so bored while cleaning!”

“I feel like shit,” was his only reply.

Hanji chuckled. “Well, you certainly _look_ like one, too,” she said, bending down to pick up abandoned toys from the floor.

“I deserve no such compliment, but thank you,” Levi deadpanned, yawning into the back of his hand.

Hanji stopped in her tracks and sighed. “Levi,” she said in a tone more sober than the one she’d been using before. “If you’re tired you can always take a nap until the kids wake up.”

“Yeah, like I’ll give away a cleaning duty,” Levi scoffed. Besides, he doubted he could even fall – and stay – asleep even if he wanted to.

Hanji walked over to the raven and gave his head a good ruffle, earning a groan from the man. For some odd reason, she’d felt that it was okay to touch and engage in prolonged conversations with Levi ever since he had asked her for that favor a few days ago. But even weirder, Levi didn’t seem to mind it as much as he would’ve before.

“The plates will be there when you wake up. Now go get some sleep,” she said.

“And where would you suggest I do that? The napping room?” Levi cocked a brow at the brunette as he threw another plate into the basin. “Besides, Erwin would probably cut my pay if he saw me sleeping on the job.”

Hanji laughed at that last sentence, earning a strange look from Levi. “Oh, look at you, the goodie-two-shoes. God.” Hanji laughed some more before continuing. “What do you think Gunther and Oluo are doing right now?”

Levi shrugged. “Running errands for Erwin? That’s what they said.”

“Yeah, and that either means _sleeping_ or _jerking off_ in daycare language.” After some contemplation, Hanji added, “Well, in this daycare, at least. We’re kind of different from other daycare centers.”

Yeah, no kidding, Levi thought. One woman and four men – five, if you include Erwin – taking care of a daycare center was unheard of.

“So you’ve been sleeping slash jerking off all this time you told me you were running errands for Erwin too?” Levi asked.

“Oh, no, not me. As the only woman in this sea of… _meat daggers_ , I’ve got real errands to run. Who do you think buys all those diapers and frozen peas every day?” Hanji asked proudly.

“I don’t know. I thought they just sort of… _appear_.”

“God, I never knew you were so funny,” Hanji mused. “But anyway, I’m pretty sure you can squeeze in Eren’s futon in the napping room. He doesn’t have a partner yet.” Hanji took the basin away from Levi and pushed him out of the playroom. “Alright, off you go, sleepyhead.”

“Wake me up before the kids are due for PM Snack, would you?” Levi asked just in case he actually fell asleep. “Wouldn’t want kids to be trampling over my body as they file out of the room.”

“Yeah, yeah. Now go to bed, would you? Or do you need me to tuck you in as well, _Baby Weebvai?_ ” Hanji waved him away.

“You ass,” Levi groaned but complied anyway.

 

* * *

 

Entering the napping room when all the futons are set out on the floor could be considered an obstacle course in and of itself. But add to that the almost tangible darkness of the room and the fact that some of the kids were extremely light sleepers, and entering the napping room would be your perfect military training base.

Closing the door behind him, Levi took out his phone and pressed for his homepage, allowing the blue light from his wallpaper to illuminate the track in front of him. As quietly as was humanly possible, he tiptoed around the room, stopping whenever a child whimpered or shifted, before continuing his trek towards the corner of the room where he knew Eren was sleeping in.

And of course, the view when he arrived at the futon was exactly what he had expected it to be: Eren completely exposed, his comforter pooled below his feet, arms outstretched and legs halfway across the futon.

_Of course._

Setting his phone against the wall, Levi set himself beside the sleeping boy and grabbed the edge of the comforter, pulling it up and spreading it over both Eren and himself, before laying his head on the pillow next to Eren’s head.

Just before his eyes closed, however, his arm found its way across Eren’s abdomen and stayed there, weighing down the comforter to keep him from kicking it off again.

 

* * *

 

Levi woke up to the pinch on his shoulder, and he had to bite the inside of his cheek in order to stop himself from crying out in pain.

“Mother of _fuck_ , Hanji,” Levi hissed, not daring to move a single muscle in fear of waking the boy beside him. “What the hell was that for?”

Hanji giggled softly and whispered, “Rise and shine, Levi.” She then stood up and left the room.

Groaning internally, Levi let go of the boy he had been keeping under the comforter – no, not _hugging_ , because Levi never hugged anyone… sort of – only to realize that the child had not only his arms wrapped around the man’s torso, but also his legs, hugging him as though he was giant stuffed animal, or a bolster.

Yes, a very bitter and bony one at that.

Levi sighed, gently peeling Eren’s extremities from his body, hoping to exit the room without waking anyone up because he did _not_ want to be caught sleeping in a _napping room_ by more than one person.

He, however, froze when the boy next to him whimpered in his sleep.

Please don’t wake up, Levi thought. Whatever you do, just don’t wake up…

“Papa,” Eren murmured, clutching the hem of Levi’s shirt tighter in his fists.

_Shit. Papa?_

“Shh,” Levi whispered as he gently rubbed the brunet’s head, careful to avoid where the _kendama_ hit him before. “I’m not your papa, so let go of me, okay?”

Eren whispered something Levi couldn’t understand but didn’t let go of his shirt. If anything, his hold only tightened.

Levi tried to pull his shirt out of the boy’s fists, but whatever dream Eren was having, it didn’t seem as if it was a very pleasant one. His knuckles were turning white from the sheer force of his grip, and every time Levi managed to pull a fiber of his shirt out, he would whimper – a sound so raw and pained that Levi did not have the heart to go on – before grappling for more fabric to hold and ultimately allowing the cycle to repeat.

Levi sighed, wondering if this was what it was like to have a child of his own. He decided that there was simply no other way to make him let go of his shirt than to wake the boy up.

Softly, Levi nudged the boy’s shoulder, whispering, “Eren. Eren, wake up. Eren.” When the boy didn’t stir, however, Levi bit the inside of his cheek and carefully set him on his arm, carrying the sleeping boy out of the room with him.

“Levi, can you please help –” Hanji started saying when she heard footsteps approaching the playroom, before Levi shushed her with a kick to the backside. “Ouch,” she flinched and turned to face the raven. She promptly understood what the kick was for.

“He won’t let go of my shirt,” Levi whispered, motioning to the two clenched fists in between his chest and Eren’s body. “How do you make him let go of my shirt?”

Hanji cocked her head to the side, inspecting the spectacle in front of her. “Have you tried yanking your shirt out of his grip?” she asked, and Levi wasn’t sure whether she was serious or not, because _of course he tried yanking it out of his grip_.

“No shit, Shitty Holmes,” Levi hissed, exasperated. “But he whimpers whenever I do that and I’m scared he’s going to cry. I tried waking him up, too, but he wouldn’t wake up. He just whimpers. How did you wake him up yesterday and the day before?”

“I didn’t. Eld did, but he didn’t seem to have any trouble waking anybody up. Let me try waking him up,” Hanji said, approaching the child. “Eren,” she sang, stroking his hair and back slowly. “Eren, dear, it’s time to wake up. Eren.” To this, Eren’s only response was – unsurprisingly – a whimper. After a while, Hanji stopped doing whatever she was doing and stood back.

“Well?” Levi mouthed.

“Slowly walk him outside. Maybe the gradual change in light and temperature might wake him up.” Hanji stared at the boy for a second, before commenting, “He’s a very heavy sleeper, isn’t he?”

“Either that, or he doesn’t want to wake up,” Levi muttered absentmindedly, already heading for the double doors of the building. “Probably sick of looking at your ugly face.”

“You’re one to talk,” Hanji retorted, but the raven was already too far away to hear what she said.

 

* * *

 

Outside, Levi slowly swayed the sleeping brat in his arms as he walked around the perimeter of the building, wishing that he’d wake up already.

“Oi, brat,” Levi said in a volume louder than a whisper but still considerably low. “Wake up, already. I’m not some eucalyptus tree where you can just perch on whenever you want, you lazy ass koala.”

Of course, all he got in return was a whimper.

“Yeah, yeah, whimper all you want. You’re still not letting go of my shirt, brat.”

Another whimper.

“I mean, why whimper? Why not just say, ‘Shut the fuck up, Levi. I’m trying to sleep here.’ Why whimper?” Levi asked to no one in particular, because of course the sleeping boy couldn’t hear him, much less answer his question.

Well, no, actually he could. He whimpered in response.

“Fucking hell. How can you sleep through all this talking and all this swaying and molesting, kid?” When Eren didn’t respond, Levi sighed and sat down on the grass, back leaning against the wall of the center. “You don’t want to wake up? I’ll sleep again, if you don’t mind.” And he closed his eyes.

“Papa?”

Levi opened an eye to see if the boy had woken up. Nope, he hadn’t. Sighing, Levi replied, “No, Eren. I’m not your goddamned papa. Stop calling me Papa.” His chest felt tight as he said that, but he shook the thought away.

“Papa, no.” Eren’s voice trembled, and Levi quickly patted him on the back because that was how you calm a crying toddler, wasn’t it? “Papa…”

“Shh,” Levi whispered, swaying the boy back and forth. “Still not your papa, but shh…”

“Stay… Papa…” Eren’s voice, barely a whisper, quivered again. “Stay…”

Levi lifted Eren up so that he could see him eye to eye. “Eren,” he said. “Eren. Wake up, Eren. Don’t cry. Eren never cries, remember? Eren? Wake up, Eren.”

It was only when the boy finally opened his eyes that Levi let out the breath he didn’t know he was holding. He looked at the two green orbs, wet from the tears that were close to being shed and confused. Confused, and rueful, but mostly confused.

“Eren?” Levi called, and the boy blinked a few times, trying to adjust to reality.

“Papa?” he croaked, looking at Levi.

“It’s Levi – no, no, what do you usually call me? Heichou? Yeah, it’s Heichou,” Levi answered. “Not Papa. Sorry if I disappointed you.” _Sorry? No! What the hell?_

“H-heichou,” Eren murmured, and if Levi didn’t know any better he’d think that the lad was slightly crestfallen.

“Yeah, brat. It’s me. Are you awake now?” The boy nodded slowly, still trying to process the fact that it was Levi holding him, not his Papa. “Okay, Eren. Can you let go of my shirt now?”

Eren unfurled his fists and stood up on his feet. “Sorry,” he whispered.

“Nothing to apologize for,” Levi said, standing up together with the child. “Do you want to go in now, brat?”

As if the word ‘brat’ was his password, Eren shook his head and smiled, and Levi couldn’t help but feel relieved at the familiar sight. “Yeah!” the boy said, holding on to the raven’s hand as they walked towards the entrance. “Grandma told me to draw something for her today. Can you help me?”

Levi groaned but reluctantly agreed.

“It’s not like I have any other choice,” Levi muttered to himself.

 

* * *

 

After everyone was picked up by the end of the day, Levi decided to approach Eld and engage in a proper conversation for the first time in a year.

“Eld,” Levi said, and Eld whirled around to face the raven, surprise to be addressed by the man.

“Yes, Levi?” he asked as he zipped his backpack up. “What can I help you with?”

“Yesterday, and the day before,” Levi said, trying to appear casual but the fact that he was even talking to blond told him that it was nothing of a casual nature. “How did you wake Eren up?”

“Eren? The new kid?” Eld asked.

“Yes, the new kid. Brown hair, huge green eyes.” Levi motioned him to continue.

Eld put his hands on his waist. “I didn’t, not really. He was already awake when I entered the room. Always have been. I doubt he actually sleeps during nap time.”

Levi looked at him for a moment, gears turning in his head, because when he had entered the room Eren was positively sleeping.

Shaking his head, he gave Eld a curt nod and walked away.


	6. Past: Routine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Farlan gets up to more trouble, and Levi and Petra have to deal with the consequences - so to speak.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just sneaking this in between study breaks. Hope it isn't too unfocused or anything.  
> Also, I deleted some tags that aren't applicable to the story yet. I'll add them on later once we get to the more... interesting parts of the story.

“Is this going to be our new routine, then?” Levi asked, leaning back into the cushion of his seat and sipping his coffee while eyeing the two people seated in the chairs across from his.

Farlan, who had his legs propped up on small round table in between them, took a big gulp of his hot chocolate – with a shot of vanilla, of course – and exhaled in content. “Yep,” he said, dreamy eyes watching the foam on the surface of his drink. “It’s not like you have anything better to do everyday anyway.”

Levi rolled his eyes at the last sentence. _Of course_ he had better things to do. Farlan might not regard them as that, but Farlan never regarded anything besides getting laid as ‘important’. His priorities were messed up that way.

“And you?” Levi asked the redhead sitting next to Farlan rigidly. “You don’t have anything important to do as well?”

Petra glanced over at Farlan, before looking back at Levi and replying, “Um, I was dragged here by him.”

“She said she didn’t have any friends here,” Farlan slurred.

“I hope you don’t mind.” Petra bit the inside of her cheek.

Levi waved her off, stirring his cup of coffee. There really was nothing like the aroma of coffee tickling your senses after hours of being cooped up in a lecture hall listening to a decrepit old man blabbering away about things he didn’t really care about. _Nothing._

“So,” Petra said after an extended moment of silence. “What do you guys usually do in coffee shops?”

Farlan broke his staring contest with his hot chocolate and sat up straight in his seat. “Yes! Yes, we do many things in coffee shops,” he exclaimed.

“Such as?” the redhead pried.

“Levi redid his notes yesterday.”

“No,” Levi spoke up, setting down his cup on the table. “I was _supposed_ to do that. You, however, kept me from doing exactly that. I finished them back in the dorm.”

“Was that why you left yesterday?” Petra asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“Yes,” the raven answered. “Why did you think I left?”

Petra shrugged, taking a sip of her ice-blend. “I don’t know, but from the direction of your conversation one would’ve thought you guys broke up yesterday,” she sniggered.

“We were and are not a couple,” Levi said through gritted teeth. “I’m not gay.”

Petra laughed, and Farlan chuckled alongside her. “Yes,” the female said. “Your friend right here has assured me that that wasn’t the case. Didn’t you, Farlan?” She elbowed the burnet’s arm.

“I sure did.” Farlan wriggled his eyebrows at Levi. “Didn’t you receive my message yesterday, Levi?” he asked, slowly and dramatically, fueling Levi’s urge to punch the boy and end his life once and for all.

“Oh yes, I received your message alright. Along with the drink and _mysterious object_ you sent me.” Under his breath, Levi murmured, “Asshole.”

Farlan gasped in mock astonishment and hurt, holding a hand against his chest. “There is no need to resort to such profanities, Levi!” he chided, clucking his tongue.

“Fuck yourself, please,” Levi said, slowly taking a sip of his coffee.

“No, thank you. Unlike you, _I_ have a _girlfriend_ who’d fuck me whenever I want her to.” The fact that Farlan was able to say that sentence with unadulterated pride did not surprise Levi howsoever. The same, however, could not be said about Petra.

“One, we really don’t need to know that. Well, _I_ don’t, at least,” Petra said. “And two, you’re _single?_ ” This question was directed to the raven.

“Do you have a problem with that?” Levi cocked a brow.

Smiling, Petra replied, “None at all. It’s just that you struck me as someone who wouldn’t find it hard to get a girlfriend, given your…”

“My what?” Levi asked, monotone, at the same time as Farlan said, “ _Dickheadedness_?”

Petra pursed her lips, pondering, before finally saying, “I wouldn’t say that Levi’s a dickhead, but now that you mentioned it, he _does_ have some dickheadedness in him, doesn’t he?”

As Farlan leaned in to give Petra a high five, Levi sighed in defeat. “I knew you two were going to group up against me. Bunch of assholes, you are,” the raven said.

Farlan stood up and propped himself on the armrest of Levi’s seat and wrapped an arm around his friend’s shoulders. “Aw, come on now, Levi. Don’t be mad,” he cooed, leaning into the raven close enough for his breath to rub his cheek. “You know we don’t mean any harm.”

“Get off me,” Levi said, cringing and scooting away to no avail. “I swear, I really question your sexual orientation sometimes.”

“Sometimes?” Petra asked, chuckling at the sight before her. “I think you meant all the time.”

“Yes, I think you might be right,” Levi replied, still desperately trying to pry the human sloth off him. “For once.”

Petra stood up in mock outrage. “I’m _often_ right!”

He scoffed. “Yes, of _course_ you are.” To Farlan, he said, “Fucking get off me, ass.”

“No!” Farlan screamed petulantly. “Never!”

“I shall join you, Brother!” Petra exclaimed in a horrible attempt in a British accent. “ _Charge!”_

She went in for a running start from her seat and leapt, arms stretched wide. She landed the other side of Levi’s chair and immediately wrapped her extremities around the raven’s body. Farlan tightened his grip as a response to this.

“Oh, _fucking hell_. Not you too,” Levi groaned, struggling to breathe in between the two idiots. “Let me go, _Jesus_.”

“Hey!” Farlan said, flicking the raven’s cheek. “Don’t use my god’s name in vain.”

“Yea, what he said!” Petra chimed in. “Jesus didn’t die for you to use His name as a cuss word.”

Levi groaned loudly, twisting his body in attempt to remove himself from the two leeches. “Get a fucking mirror, assholes.”

“Never!” Petra and Farlan shouted in unison.

Levi was just about to tell them to fuck off and stand up when the barista of the coffee shop – Evelyn, Levi saw from her nametag – approached the trio and begged them to be quiet.

“I know the shop’s practically empty, but… please,” she said, giving them an exasperated look. “It’s disturbing to the potential customers outside.”

“What is?” Farlan asked – quite shamelessly, Levi thought as he ducked his head in second-hand embarrassment.

The barista merely stared at the brunet for a second, and two, blinking blankly as if she hadn’t registered what he’d just said. And then she spread out her arms, shoulder length, before spitting out a disgusted, “This.”

Now, a normal person – or, at least, one who still had his sanity intact – would probably realize that the position they were in _was_ very disturbing, and that whatever potential customer the shop had would probably be scared away by the sight of the trio. And upon this realization, that said normal person would probably choose to shut the fuck up and obey whatever the poor barista had to say. That was what Levi thought, at least.

However, it would seem that Farlan hadn’t fallen into that category of a normal person – of course he didn’t, who was Levi kidding? – because instead of shutting the fuck up and untangling himself from the raven, he’d chose to voice out his incredibly moronic opinion, which was:

“But I don’t find it disturbing. I’m sure Petra over here doesn’t find this disturbing as well; do you Petra? You don’t want to answer? That means you don’t. See, you can’t judge what’s disturbing and what’s not, because you aren’t Jesus, who died for us on the cross to be used as a cuss word by our little raven tree right here. By this reason, you can’t judge us and order us to move just because you think it’s disturbing, because what one perceives as being disturbing might be perceived as completely normal for another person.”

Levi really didn’t know whether to be impressed by the eloquence the brunet had spoken his little speech in, or to be mad that the brunet didn’t have enough working brain cells to just _shut the fuck up_.

He decided that _jaded_ would probably best describe how he was feeling then.

The barista, however, hadn’t taken what Farlan said as lightly. Furrowing her eyebrows, she muttered a quick, “That’s true,” before proceeding to take Farlan’s vanilla-infused hot chocolate and poured half of it over his head, some of it dripping on to Levi’s jeans.

And then, as if Farlan hadn’t been burned enough, she continued by saying, “Now, I consider this to be normal, so you can’t judge and complain to me. Also, I find that kicking out lousy customers who wouldn’t abide by shop rules to be the norm in these places, so if you would, please get out of the shop.”

Now _this_ was an impressive performance.

Farlan, after recovering from the initial shock of having hot chocolate poured over his head, pouted characteristically and peeled himself off Levi, with Petra following suit silently. Levi let out a loud sigh and stood up in the middle of the trio.

“Yes, I agree,” Farlan said, tilting his chin up with all the pride and dignity he had left. “Don’t mind if we do. Come on guys, I know another coffee shop down the street which has better coffee anyway.”

Levi acknowledged this to be a lie, but said nothing as he and Farlan turned to leave. Behind, he could hear hushed apologies being uttered by Petra, followed by hurried footsteps as she caught up to them.

 

* * *

 

 

“Hey Petra, where can I get one of these giant walking air fresheners you have there?” Levi asked, deeply inhaling the chocolate-tainted scent of the winter afternoon.

“Oh I don’t know. Evelyn of the Coffee Shop gave it to me. Do you like the smell?” Petra replied, breathing in as well. “I personally find it to be a bit… overbearing. What do you think?”

“Hmm.” Levi rubbed his cheek in contemplation. “I like the chocolate scent, but the trail of _shitheadedness_ and _inability-to-keep-my-mouth-shut_ are absolutely _disturbing_.”

“Yes, I think you’re absolutely right!” Petra agreed cheerfully. “I think whatever _potential customer_ this company has would be turned off by such a horrible after-whiff.”

“I’m not judging or whatever, because it might be a _completely normal_ scent for some people, but _Jesus Christ_ didn't die for us on the cross so that people would be walking around smelling shit everywhere.”

The both of them turned to look at Farlan then, Petra raising an eyebrow and Levi smirking. The brunet just sighed and pushed both his friends forward.

“Just walk, alright you two?” Farlan groaned. “My hair’s going to be a disheveled rack of chocolate popsicles if we don’t get to some place warm soon.” Petra laughed at that and the three of them started walking down the street.

“Where are we going?” Petra asked.

Farlan lifted his gaze and looked at Petra for a while, before shrugging. “Well, I’m going to get a shower in my room, but I don’t think you guys want to go there with me,” he said. “Or do you?” That question was intended for Levi.

“No, you’re right, we don’t.” Levi replied, and the brunet laughed.

“Yeah, thought so. I guess you guys can just, I don’t know, walk around together or something?” Farlan cocked his head to the side, looking at the raven.

Levi returned Farlan’s stare then, before taking a great interest in the small rock he was kicking down the path. “I’m going back to my room. You forget that I still have an essay to finish before winter break, asshat.”

Farlan turned to look at Petra, who seemed very interested in picking at the loose thread of her jacket. “And you? Returning to your dorm?” Farlan asked, elbowing the redhead.

“Erm, I actually have a part time shift in an hour. I’ll just go there early to prepare everything first.” Petra offered a smile.

Farlan sighed, stuffing his hands inside the pockets of his jeans. “You guys are boring. Why am I friends with you guys?”

“Whoever said we were friends?” Levi asked, just as Petra said, “Because nobody else would take you.”

Farlan responded with elbowing them on the arm.

 

* * *

 

 

Not a week after the hot chocolate incident, Levi found himself again seated across Farlan and Petra, this time in the university’s public library, of all places.

“Let me guess,” Levi had said to Petra when he’d taken the seat. “You were forced to come today too?”

Petra looked up from her notebook, surprised at the sudden question, and stammered, “Oh, I was – no, I wasn’t – I mean, I was here the whole day. My class was cancelled.”

Levi cocked an eyebrow at her as he shrugged off his backpack and unzipped it, fishing for his Economics textbook. “With him?” He nodded to Farlan, who was clearly sleeping behind a standing textbook.

Petra looked over at the sleeping brunet. “Oh, no, he called me asking where I was. I told him and here he is.”

“Lesson number one: Never tell Farlan where you are. Such a pain in the ass, he is,” Levi said, placing his bag down on the floor.

Petra cracked a smile at this. “I don’t mind him being here. He seems so lonely on the phone.”

Levi’s eyebrows rose at her statement, and he stared at her for a while, before finally returning his gaze onto his book and saying, “He’s quite taken, I believe.”

The redhead’s eyes bulged out of her sockets, cheeks quickly turning to a deep shade of pink. “No!” she cried out, horrified. “I didn’t mean it that way! I-I don’t like him! Levi, dear god no!”

“Gosh, aren’t you just the pleasant little thing.”

Levi and Petra turned to see the stirring Farlan rubbing his eyes as he straightened himself on the chair. Petra turned a shade redder – if it was even possible.

“I didn’t mean it that way!” Petra said. “You’re just not my type.”

Levi chuckled, flipping the page of his textbook. “Calm down, flamehead. We’re just shitting you. Don’t need to get so defensive.”

Petra opened and closed her mouth for a few times, not knowing what to say, before finally settling for a frustrated groan. “Why are you even here?” she asked, pouting.

“The shithead right there texted me saying that if I didn’t get my butt down here in five minutes, he’d personally see that my computer breaks down tomorrow so that I wouldn’t be able to continue my essay.” Levi flipped over a page. Even without looking up, he could sense that Farlan was giving Petra a toothy grin.

“Is this going to be our new routine, then?”Petra asked, casting a glance at Farlan’s direction. “Hanging out in the library?”

Farlan let out a content sigh. “I sure hope so. It’d be nice to have our own routine after classes. Maybe someday I’ll get Isabel to ditch one of her classes and come with us!”

Perhaps it was ridiculous excitement embedded in his voice, or maybe the childlike wish of having an afterschool routine. Either way, Levi couldn’t help but burst out in laughter the second Farlan gave the suggestion.

“What?” Farlan asked, feigning hurt. “You don’t like spending quality time with us?”

“Oh no, that’s not the problem,” Levi said, regaining his composure. “The problem is, the only routine we’ll ever have is trying to find a new place to hang out after you’ve ultimately gotten out backsides kicked out for being a talkative imbecile.”

“That’s not true! I’ve only gotten our asses kicked out of _one_ place, and that place sucks anyway!” Farlan whined, sounding like a defensive child. _Oh wait._

“Excuse you, I happen to like their lattes,” Petra interjected in mock anger. “And Evelyn of the Coffee Shop seemed like such a nice girl.”

“Oh shut up, Petra. Their drinks suck, just like their customer service.”

“Sounds like someone’s finding excuses to cover up for his misbehavior…” Levi sang, eyes still glued to his book.

“I am _not_ finding excuses! It’s true! Evelyn of the Coffee Shop sucks balls,” Farlan asserted, finger jabbing the air in front of him. In fact, he was so passionate about the subject of how horrible the Evelyn of the Coffee Shop was that he stood up suddenly, and shouted. “ _If I was holding a gun with two bullets, in a room with Justin Bieber, Bin Laden and Evelyn of the Coffee Shop, I will shoot Evelyn of the Coffee Shop twice in each lung and ask Bieber and Laden to have unprotected threesome with her slowly dying body!_ ”

Levi wasn’t even surprised when the librarian approached them, nostril flaring and face red as a tomato, ordering the brunet to _get out of the library before she took his ID, and consequently access to all university facilities, away from him._

Being the good friends that they were – although Levi would never _ever_ call himself that – Petra and Levi left together with Farlan, who didn’t look the slightest bit embarrassed for what just happened inside the building.

“It’s so hard to be always right.” Levi sighed, watching as his breath formed white puffs in the air.

“Like I give a flying fuck what that lady says,” Farlan commented. “Come on guys, I know another library down the street –”

“Which has better books anyway?” Petra interjected, giggling in spite of herself.

Levi rolled his eyes as Farlan playfully jabbed the girl on the arm.


	7. Present: Doctor-Patient Confidentiality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Levi gets a fever [that he doesn't acknowledge] and Eren plays doctor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A thousand apologies for not updating (and instead writing up two more oneshots) these two months. I'd blame it on exams, but it's not really their fault.
> 
> The writer's block I had while writing this was horrible, so I apologise in advance for the crappy and inconsistent writing in this chapter (and the whole story in general, but you know).
> 
> Sigh.

“You’re getting better at this. I thought you said you hated the _kendama._ ”

Eren whirled around and flashed a smile at Levi, eyes gleaming under the sun like emeralds. Levi didn’t know whether to feel annoyed that the boy was so smug about his new-found ability or to congratulate him for it.

He decided to do neither, opting instead to let the boy be while he sat down on the grass, back leaning on the wall of the daycare, hiding from the ruthless sun. It was only 11AM, but the July sun was already high up in the sky, beating down mercilessly at the pitiful beings that were the both of them.

At least, Levi seemed to think so. He was sweating profusely, soaking through his shirt as though he’d performed crazy aerobics. His eyes hurt just looking at the grass, the brightness practically searing his retina. Oddly enough, however, Eren wasn’t breaking a sweat even with his running around and flailing a wooden stick around the yard.

 _Fucking mutant five-year-olds,_ Levi thought as he pressed the palm of his hands against his eyes, willing the heat to go away.

“Eren practiced the _kemdan_ with grandma the whole day!” the child said as he went back to practicing. She taught Eren how to hold it. See?” He raised the hand that was holding the _kendama_ in the exact position Levi had taught him the day before.

“I told you how to hold it yesterday, didn’t I?” Levi asked, lifting his head to look at the boy. “I taught you that first, brat.”

“Yeah, but grandma is a better teacher than Heichou.” Eren stuck his tongue out and waved the _kendama_ around.

“She is _not_ ,” Levi retorted even though he had no way to be sure. “I am an amazing teacher – one of the best, in fact.”

Eren laughed, and Levi had no way of knowing whether or not it was sarcastic.

Probably not. Five-year-olds weren’t exactly known for their wit.

 _Well_ , Levi thought. _They weren’t exactly known for Not Crying either, but Eren was the walking, living, Not Crying proof that five-year-olds these days were about as predictable as a woman’s temperament – which is to say, utterly unpredictable._

“Just so you know, I used to teach a lot of people before I came here. They all said I was good at it – great, even.” Levi stuck out his chin, unyielding, unwilling to lose to some _kendama_ -owning grandmother. A bit childish, perhaps, but _oh fucking well_. It was too hot a day to be mature.

Eren looked up from his toy. “Was Heichou good at forcing people to lie as well?” His eyes were blown up so wide that Levi wasn’t sure whether he had been sarcastic or if he really was genuinely curious.

Levi opened his mouth to respond, to come up with something witty and smart, but he hadn’t been expecting such a _burn_ from the child that he really was left speechless, gaping like a fish out from the water. Finally, he settled with, “So what if I was, brat?”

Eren smiled, before pressing his lips in confusion. “So Heichou was a teacher before?” he asked.

“No, I wasn’t, but you don’t have to be a teacher to teach other people.”

Eren cocked his head to the side. “Who did Heichou teach then?”

“People I know, people I meet every day. People, basically,” Levi answered and mentally slapped himself. _Of course_ he’d taught _people_. What, was Eren supposed to be wondering whether he’d taught cats how to do taxes? _Jesus… the sun was frying his brain._

Eren, however, seemed content with that answer, and proceeded with playing with his _kendama_.

Sighing, Levi pulled up his legs and leaned his head against his knees, feeling the sweat trickling down his neck and down his back. He shivered.

He’d been feeling odd since the morning, when he’d woken up in a pool of sweat and the taste of bile in his mouth. The walk to the day care had been a trek up the Swiss Alps, and even now, exposed and sweating under the blinding sun, Levi couldn’t help but feel cold.

 _Must be the sleep_ , Levi thought while pinching the bridge of his nose. _Must be the fucking sleep._

Without realizing it, he’d closed his eyes and let out an embarrassingly loud yawn. Eren, who had been quietly playing with his toy before, promptly stopped waving the _kendama_ around and walked towards the resting man.

To say that Levi was startled when he felt a cold hand press against his forehead would be a massive understatement to the grossest proportions. He actually _flinched away_ from the touch.

“ _What are you doing?_ ” Levi hissed, leaning away from the boy as though he was King Midas, and a touch from him would turn the man to gold, or hard, solid ice.

Eren merely cocked his head in confusion. “Grandma said that if Eren is sleepy in the day, Eren might have a fever. Heichou, you might have a fever.”

Levi stared at him for a second or two, not sure whether to feel touched from the genuine care shown by the boy or to laugh at such a stupid method of diagnosing fever. Again he chose neither, instead ruffling the brunet’s hair.

“It’s just too hot today,” Levi said as he felt goose bumps form on his arm. “I don’t like the heat.”

Eren sat down on the grass next to Levi and looked up at the sky, green eyes glinting under the scintillating sun. “But the sun is so warm! Summers are so much better than winters.”

Levi chuckled, closing his eyes again. “I don’t like winters too. Too cold.”

“So Heichou doesn’t like it if it’s hot and also if it’s cold?” Eren asked, tapping the _kendama_ against his crossed legs. “Heichou is so weird.”

“Watch it, brat. You’re the weird one.”

“So Heichou doesn’t like summer?”

Levi sighed. “I’m usually okay with summers. Today is just different.”

“Maybe it’s fever,” Eren pointed out.

“It’s not fever,” Levi insisted.

“How can you know?”

“Because I know I’m just tired.”

“Grandma said you need someone else to feel your forehead to know whether or not you have a fever.”

Levi opened his eyes and looked at the boy. “You felt my forehead just now. Do I have a fever, Dr. Eren?” He cocked up a brow.

“Eren needs to feel it again.” Eren raised his hand, landing it on the raven’s forehead with a smack. Levi leaned down to make the job easier for the future doctor to be. “Why is Heichou’s head so hot?”

“It’s called body heat, Eren. I don’t have a fever.” Pulling away, Levi straightened himself and stood up, trying his best to not hiss at the sun. Looking at his watch, he said, “It’s almost lunch time. Let’s go in.”

Instead of hauling the boy up on his arm as he would usually, Levi took his hand and directed them back to the building. Eren was quiet the whole way, and Levi was grateful for the quiet.

His head was swimming in circles, sharks surrounding their unfortunate prey.

 

* * *

 

 

When Hanji went to tuck the kids into their futons, Levi stayed in the playroom to collect the dirty dishes, audibly flinching whenever he stood up after retrieving a plate from the dizzy spell.

If his head had been swimming before, it was plain out killing him now. The sharks had run out of patience and were now savagely tearing off chunks of his brain. His brain, in turn, was pounding against his skull, trying to escape the onslaught.

Levi wanted nothing more than to dip his head inside a bucket of ice. Or fire, just to kill the damn sharks.

When Hanji materialised next to him ten minutes later, they were in the laundry room, him furiously scrubbing at a stubborn sauce stain and her watching him with mild interest.

“If you have nothing better to do, then I suggest you start preparing for evening snack time,” Levi said without so much as a glance at the brunette.

Hanji ignored what he said. “Do you get turned on by washing dishes, or was Eren right about you having a fever?” she asked, walking towards the man.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Levi muttered, knowing exactly what she was talking about. His cheeks were flushed, and he felt the heat radiating off his skin even as cold sweat trickled down his neck. _The sex face_. _The fever face_. _The face of a person whose whole body feels like it’s burning in ice._

Even so, Hanji felt it was necessary to feel his forehead, and so she did, earning a gasp from the unsuspecting raven. “Mother _fuck!_ Get your dirty hands off me,” he hissed, swatting her arm away with a soapy hand.

Hanji’s brows slanted downwards. “Levi, you’re burning up. I think you should call it a day. We have some Advil in the staff room. Let me get some,” she said, already turning around to leave the room.

“I don’t need it,” Levi said over his shoulder, receiving a sarcastic “Yea right” in response.

By the time Hanji came down with a bottle of Advil, Levi was scrubbing the last plate in the sink, and she set down the pills and a glass of water on the counter next to the sink.

“Finish up quickly,” Hanji said, resting her arms on her hips. “I’ll drive you home after you drink the medicine. I woke Oluo up so that he can keep an eye on the kids.”

“I’m not going home just because some kid thinks I have a fever,” Levi said, closing the tap and placing the last plate on the rack to dry. Turning around, he grabbed the pills and chased it down with cold water. It felt like heaven in his throat.

“But _I_ know you have a fever too,” Hanji whined.

“Fine. I’m not going home just because two kids think I have a fever,” Levi corrected himself, earning a light punch to the shoulder.

“Come on, I’ll drive you home.” When Levi crossed his arms and didn’t move, Hanji sighed. “Levi,” she said, exasperated, ready to haul the man over her shoulder if the need arose. “Please don’t make me force you into the car…”

Levi looked away from the brunette, placing the glass in the sink to be washed later. “I’ll be fine,” he said simply, tone heavy, stiff. He wrapped his fingers around the edge of the sink, grip exerting enough force to turn his knuckles white.

Hanji narrowed her eyes at the man. She replied just for the sake of refuting, “You need to rest.”

“Then,” Levi said, stretching the word like a loud exhale, “I’ll just go sleep with the kids like I did yesterday.” He turned around to face Hanji, who was still looking at him the way one would a tricky math problem, and silently reminded himself that he only suggested it to avoid going home.

 _Of course_ , he thought to himself. _Why else would he suggest such a horrific idea?_

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of staring, Hanji’s eyebrows shot up and her mouth opened to form a small o. When she spoke next, her tone was different.

“You can’t do that today. You’ll pass on the cold to the kids.” She pursed her lips, but even Levi could see the smile she was trying to hide.

“I’ll go get a mask, then.” Levi crossed his arms, resolute. When Hanji opened her mouth to reply – probably explaining why wearing a mask wouldn’t be effective in keeping the cold from spreading – Levi cut her off. “I’m not going home no matter what, Hanji. Leave me be.”

The brunette didn’t bother to cover her grin now, grabbing Levi by the shoulders and started steering him out of the building. When he started to resist, Hanji tightened her grip and said, “The kid will be there tomorrow, Levi. Relax.”

“What kid?” Levi asked, but even he knew it was no use. True to her degree in psychology – or as Levi preferred to call it, _mind reading_ – Hanji knew why Levi was so reluctant to go home. Groaning, he let her lead him to her car, muttering about not trusting Oluo to wash the dishes clean enough after he went home.

Once they were seated in her red Mazda, Hanji gave him a knowing smile from the rearview mirror; Levi asked her to drive.

 

* * *

 

 

As it turned out, it had been wise of Hanji to bring Levi home when she did, because by the time they’d reached his apartment unit, he was burning up so badly that he could barely walk two steps without toppling over. In the end, she had to drag him over to his bedroom and throw him onto his bed like a passed out drunk.

“Don’t they teach proper bedside manners to psychologists these days?” Levi mumbled into his pillow, groaning when the pounding in his head grew even more intense.

Hanji ignored his remark and made her way to the bathroom down the hall. “Where do you keep clean towels?” she asked. “And a thermometer?”

“Cupboard below the sink. Bowl’s in the kitchen, above the counter.” Levi flipped himself over so that he was lying on his back, forearm pressed against his eyes in attempt to calm his ecstatic headache.

When Hanji returned not a minute later, she placed a miscellaneous collection of things on his bedside table, stuck an oral thermometer into his mouth and smacked a cold towel on his forehead. And while he had to admit that having a compress on his head felt as though god himself had descended down to earth to breathe life into him again, the fact that Hanji was the one taking care after him – waiting patiently as his thermometer recorded his temperature – unnerved him terribly.

“Hm,” she said, pulling out the thermometer from Levi’s mouth and inspecting it. “You wanted to work with a 41-degree fever. Not sure if I should be feeling touched by your sacrifice or appalled by your stupidity.”

“What about going back to the daycare and leaving me alone?” When she didn’t reply, Levi peeked from under his arm. “That is to say, thanks for driving me home, now get away before you get sick too.”

Hanji chuckled, bending down to ruffle the raven’s sweaty hair. Levi swatted her arm away. “Well,” she said, straightening up. “I left the bottle of Advil and a glass of water next to your picture here.” She motioned towards his bedside table.

Levi grunted, not wanting to react too much to what she just said.

“Do you need anything else before I leave?” she asked.

“Keep the keys to my flat, will you? I need somebody to find my rotting body tomorrow.”

“I thought you said you weren’t sick.” Laughing, she turned and made her way out of his room, but not before she patted him in the head, muttering something about dealing with tsunderes being right up her alley.

 

* * *

 

 

Levi had planned to sleep all the way through the next day. Or, at least, until midnight. This had been wishful thinking on his part, of course, given his tendency to jolt up awake, shaken out of slumber by his less than pleasant dreams.

What he hadn’t expected, however, was to be awoken to the sound of his door bell ringing, half past six in the evening.

Grunting, he shifted in bed and pulled up his comforter over his head, trying to block out the shrill ringing. His head was no longer pounding, and he was trying to keep it that way. He hoped that his visitor would think that nobody was home and leave; it wasn’t as if he was expecting anyone, and whoever came should’ve called ahead to see if he was in the mood for a round of small talk and other useless human interactions.

Not that he was ever in the mood for that, but he had been found to allow the occasional visitor into his unit if only to keep in touch with old acquaintances.

His doorbell stopped ringing after a while, Levi noted with great satisfaction, and the quiet of his apartment unit was restored once more. In the silence, Levi felt himself relax once again, his eyes fluttering close and his breaths slowing down, the arms of slumber tugging at his sore limbs…

“Heichou.”

Immediately, Levi’s eyes flung open, and he promptly realized that the tugging he’d felt was more physical than the pull drowsiness. Turning around, he poked his head out from under the comforter and narrowed his eyes at the figure by the foot of his bed.

“Eren?” he rasped, throat dry from not drinking for the whole day. “What are you doing here? How did you even _get in?_ ”

Realizing that Levi was awake, Eren let go of the comforter wrapped around the man’s leg and walked over to face him. “Is Heichou still sick?” he asked, voice muffled by the mask covering his mouth. He tilted his head to the side, blinking at the man.

Levi sat up and rubbed his forehead, tossing the dry towel into the bowl of what was now lukewarm water on his bedside table. Clearing his throat, he reached for the cup of water Hanji had left for him in the afternoon and drank its contents in one go. “Did Hanji bring you here?” he asked once he was done drinking.

As though on cue, Hanji pranced into the bedroom, squealing, “Levi! I’m so glad it’s not your rotting body I’m looking at right now!” She beamed, and Levi glared at her in response.

“What the hell are you doing in my house, and why did you bring him here?” Levi nodded towards Eren, who was quietly watching the exchange from where he stood, still clad in his light blue uniform.

Hanji shrugged and tousled the boy’s hair, smiling. “Eren here insisted that we visit you once he found out you went home, and since you asked me to keep the keys to your unit, I thought we’d drop by and make you dinner,” she answered, lifting the grocery bag in her hand.

“I have a _fever_ , Hanji, not complete paralysis. I still can cook for myself,” Levi said, unamused. Shaking his head, he continued, “I thought you were worried I’d get the kids sick. Why the hell did you bring him _here?_ Won’t his grandmother be worried when she goes to the daycare to pick him up, only to realize that he isn’t there?”

“Relax,” Hanji mused as she walked towards the man, bending down to feel his forehead. He squirmed under her touch, flinching away and hissing. “He’s wearing a mask, see? And I asked permission from his grandmother. I’ll send him home after our visit. Hm.” She let go of his forehead and cocked her head to the side. “You’re still a bit warm. If it doesn’t go down by tomorrow, call Erwin and tell him you’ll be taking the day off.”

Levi was just about to open his mouth and retort when Hanji cast him a look that said ‘ _I will personally see to it that you don’t come to work sick. Any resistance is futile. Period.’_

Groaning, the raven flopped over onto his stomach, burying his face in his pillow. “Go away, Mom,” he deadpanned into the pillow.

“Children these days,” Hanji said, shaking her head and chuckling. After a while, she sighed and smiled. “Alright, I’ll get started on dinner then. Be good, Eren.”

Levi listened to the sound of her footsteps as she turned around and walked out of the room. It was only when he heard the telltale sounds of kitchenware being taken out of storage and the rustling of a grocery bag, and was sure that Hanji was out of earshot, that he tilted his head to the side and peeked at the toddler staring at him, hands clutching the hem of his uniform.

“Missed me?” Levi mumbled, shifting to a more comfortable position on his side.

Eren hesitated for a while, but nodded afterwards. The mask that was obviously too big for him dropped down, exposing his nose.

Groggily, Levi sat up and crossed his legs, before patting the space on the bed beside him. “Come here,” he said, and Eren climbed up the bed, making himself comfortable before looking back up at the man. Clucking his tongue, Levi reached out to fix the brunet’s mask. “Wear your mask properly, or else you’ll get sick.”

Eren nodded again, not saying anything.

Levi sighed, leaning against his headboard. “Why are you so quiet all of a sudden? Are you sleepy?”

Eren shook his head so vigorously that Levi had to wonder whether he’d given himself a concussion.

“So what is it? You’re usually the chirpy one here.”

The brunet clenched his fists, but otherwise remained silent.

“Hey, hey,” Levi mumbled. “If you’re just going to stay quiet then I’d rather go back to sleep.”

At this, Eren’s head shot up, his green eyes practically shooting out of their sockets. He asked, “Is Heichou going to the daycare tomorrow?”

“Hm?” Levi exhaled, fingers twirling around a loose thread. “Well, you heard Hanji. I won’t be allowed to work if I’m still sick by tomorrow.”

“T-then, when will Heichou get better?”

Thinking about it later, Levi would blame the fever for what he did next. Stupid, mind-melting fever, making him do things he wouldn’t have done under normal circumstances. Or perhaps he’d been caught up in all the weirdness of having guests over and decided to do something even weirder just for the hell of it. Whatever it was, Levi hadn’t thought it weird when he smiled and crouched down, leaning closer to the boy, saying, “I don’t know, Dr. Eren. Feel my head and tell me when I will get better, will you?”

Ducking his head, the boy gingerly raised his arm, gently touching Levi’s sweat-beaded forehead as opposed to his energetic slap in the morning. Levi could feel the slight tremble in the brunet’s hand, the light scraping as he curled his hand into a loose fist, his nails rubbing against the raven’s skin.

“Well?” Levi coaxed. His smile broadened when he saw that the boy had bitten his lower lip.

“Heichou will get better tomorrow,” Eren finally said, before giving an almost imperceptible but definitive nod to accentuate his statement. He dropped his hand to his lap and looked down at his lap.

Levi found great amusement in watching the usually talkative bundle of energy curl up into a ball of shyness. Was this how he acted in the evening, when the ultimate source of energy of the world was gone, and its withdrawn sibling was taking its place in the sky? Deciding to tease him further, Levi cocked his head to the side, asking, “And what if I don’t?”

The reaction that his question elicited from the brunet, however, was the last thing he had expected from the boy. Eren – quite literally – flung himself over to Levi, wrapping his arms around the man’s abdomen and burying his face into his button-up. His hands were fists clutching the raven’s shirt, and Levi could feel wetness seeping in through the thin fabric.

“Please don’t leave,” Eren said, voice muffled by the shirt, and Levi was surprised to find that the tremble that was in his hands – the tremble that he’d thought was the effect of diffidence and fatigue – had found its way to his voice. “Heichou, please get better. Please don’t leave.”

As a heart-wrenching sob travelled up Eren’s chest and a violent shudder took control of his being, Levi immediately knew that a misunderstanding of some sort had taken place. Worse than that, however, was that he also knew that the gesture was more than mild concern for Levi’s well-being. No, something was troubling Eren, something the boy might not even know himself.

And if yesterday’s events were anything to go by, whatever was bothering with Eren had something to do with his _Papa_.

But Levi couldn’t possibly ask Eren what it was – at least not now, not when he was crying and shaking and begging Levi not to leave. No. Instead, he wrapped his arms around the child and pulled him to his own embrace, cheek buried in his tousled mop of brown hair.

“I’ll get better tomorrow,” Levi murmured, rocking the boy back and forth in his lap. He could feel the child shuddering, feel as the grip on his shirt tightened, as the boy pushed himself even closer to him. Something tugged at the insides of his chest, and he casted a quick glance at the picture on his bedside table before shaking his head and continued whispering. “I won’t leave, okay? I promise. I’ll get better tomorrow and we’ll play the _kendama_ again at the daycare. I’ll even teach you a new trick. How about that?”

Levi remained in that position for the next couple of minutes, mumbling and whispering in a one-sided conversation, fingers drawing soothing circles on the boy’s back. He didn’t let go of Eren, not when he’d calmed down and stopped crying, not even when he slowly drifted to sleep in his arms.

The possibility of having Eren in his arms again, clinging onto him the way a child would to his father, had been the reason Levi didn’t want to go home, but never had he thought of the possibility that the gesture was as much of a sedative to the boy as it was to him.

When Hanji reentered the room moments later – the mouth-watering aroma of chicken soup trailing in her wake – and saw the position they were in, Levi had looked up to see what kind of shit eating grin she’d have on. But instead of a smile or a smirk, he found himself looking at Hanji casting him a doleful look, with her brows slanted down and creased, her lips pressed together into a straight line.

A look that Levi was certain mirrored his own.

So he didn’t let go. He stood up and went out of his room with the boy still sleeping against him, and even as he sat down to eat the dinner Hanji had cooked for him, the boy was still grabbing onto him and he him.

“I really don’t want to wake him up,” Levi muttered in between sips of his soup, breaking the silence that had been there since Eren fell asleep.

Hanji chuckled softly and tilted her head to the side. “I guess,” she said, a smile making its way up her face, “I’ll need to call his grandmother again, then.”

Levi nodded, his arm tightening around the brunet.

Eren’s grip on Levi’s shirt was, unsurprisingly, unrelenting as ever.


End file.
